Gift of the Daleks
by Annienygma
Summary: The Doctor makes an unexpected discovery after the Reality Bomb test in the Dalek crucible; at least one Time Lord had escaped the Time War to settle upon the Earth in another dimension. Masquerading as humans they had even managed to raise children. Now, against all odds, one of those children has been pulled into the Doctor's world. 10th Doctor.
1. Chapter 1: Dazed and Confused

**Author's note: I own nothing but Bella and her backstory. If I did, I would be one happy camper, however.**

 _Okay, that's weird._ Bella thought as she looked around in confusion. _One minute I'm digging through my grandfather's old house and the next I'm in an alley. Where the hell am I?_

Bella Fugate tried to stand but her legs would not cooperate so she plopped back down in the dirty alleyway. Her head throbbed; when she noticed something dripping in her eye she tried to lift her right hand to wipe it off but the arm wouldn't cooperate. She looked down to discover that she had an extra 90-degree angle between her elbow and wrist. _Oh my god my arm is broken,_ she thought as she looked at the limb in wonder. There was still something dripping into her eye so she used her left hand to wipe it off. It was blood.

 _Okay, so I'm in an alley with a broken arm and my head is bleeding._ She tried to analyze what had just happened. She paged through her recent memories hoping for a clue. Her uncles and aunts had finally decided that her grandfather's house needed to be demolished since no one could agree on the proper way to settle his estate. Bella had decided to take one last look around the place before it was lost to her forever. Armed with her sketchbook and camera she had climbed through one of the broken windows, taking pictures and making rough sketches of her old homeplace.

Lost in her memories Bella had wandered around, exploring every single nook and cranny of the old house. It had been over a decade since her grandfather had passed but she still missed him terribly. She had spent so much time with him growing up, listening to his wild stories and learning everything that he was willing to teach. He was the only one who had ever truly understood her, knew exactly how she viewed the world and it had felt like a part of her had disappeared the night she held him in her arms and felt him fade away.

This time there was something different about the house however. She had spent a good portion of her childhood there but not once had she noticed the odd-looking wardrobe sitting in the corner of her grandfather's old bedroom. Even stranger, there was a light emitting from the cracks around its door despite the fact that the power had been shut off and no one had lived there since the night of her grandfather's death.

Bella recalled walking up to the wardrobe and trying to open the door. She had wanted to look inside, to see what was causing the odd glow but the door hadn't budged when she tugged on the handle. Undeterred, she fetched a butter knife from the kitchen and tried to pry it open.

She remembered the light getting brighter then, wrapping around her almost like a blanket. It felt burning hot and freezing at the same time. She had ignored the sensation, tugging and prying at the door despite of it, only to suddenly discover herself falling through the air. She had flung out her arm instinctively and felt the crack when it snapped. Then nothing.

 _That must have been when I hit my head,_ she reasoned.

Bella sat there as she tried to think it through. Her grandfather's house was nestled deep in an Eastern Kentucky hollow. The nearest town was several miles away. It had grown a bit since she was a child but over the years she had walked every inch of that place. This alley was not in her hometown, so where was she?

More to the point, how did she get here?

Dazed and more than a little confused, Bella finally realized that she couldn't sit in that alley forever. She needed to figure out where she was and start working her way back to her grandfather's place. The clock was ticking and she hadn't finished taking all the pictures she wanted, so she used her left hand to push herself off the ground and started walking.

The first thing that stood out to Bella as she exited the alley was that the cars were all on the wrong side of the road. Not only that, their steering wheels were on the opposite side as well. She blinked and stared as she looked around. The whole area seemed to be in chaos. People were cheering and dancing in the streets. _Some sports team must have won a game_ , Bella thought as she continued walking.


	2. Chapter 2: Aftermath

**Author's note: I own nothing but Bella and her backstory. If I did, I would be one happy camper, however.**

The Doctor had parked his Tardis in orbit around the Earth while he showered and changed after leaving Donna with her family. Part of him wanted to set the course to random, to run as far away from there as he could but there was still a chance that the test on the Dalek crucible had caused some rifts to form. He had programmed the Tardis to scan for anomalies while he cleaned up.

He was debating whether or not to take a short nap when the Tardis alerted him to a discovery. A small rift had formed in an alleyway in London. It had promptly closed but some residue remained in the area. Oddly enough, the residue was similar to that of a Tardis.

Surprised, the Doctor immediately set the coordinates for the alley in question. The alley was empty when he arrived but his sonic picked up some definite Artron readings, identical to that a Tardis would leave in its wake. The Doctor looked around for signs that an actual Tardis had parked there in the recent past. He found a small dark pool on the ground near the trash bins. Upon examining it, he realized with a start that it was blood.

Time Lord blood.

The Doctor quickly switched settings on his sonic to search for any Time Lords in the area. The signal was weak but it was enough to send him running. He dodged around the revelers celebrating the fact that the Earth had been restored to its proper place as he tried to lock onto the signal. Whoever it was could be a threat and they needed to be stopped. After the Crucible he was not in the mood to play games.

He skidded to a stop when he encountered a large crowd of humans blocking his way. He was close, really close, and these humans were in danger. He needed to see what he was facing and fast so he climbed atop a nearby statue and looked around.

A woman near the center of the crowd caught his attention. Her right arm appeared to be bent at an odd angle and she was turning circles like she was searching for something. He aimed his sonic at her and confirmed that she was his target.


	3. Chapter 3: Help

**Author's note: I own nothing but Bella and her backstory. If I did, I would be one happy camper, however.**

For the life of her Bella couldn't wrap her mind around what was happening. These people were acting insane. She had asked a couple of them what was going on and they had told her some crazy story about planets in the sky and alien pepperpots. As near as she could figure it, they were all celebrating because the aliens were gone and the sky was back to normal.

It didn't look quite normal to her, though, but Bella had to admit that her judgment was probably off. Seriously, if she didn't know any better she would swear that somehow she had ended up in England but that was impossible. You can't pry open a door in Kentucky and end up on the other side of the planet. You just can't.

 _Must have hit my head harder than I thought._

The crowds seemed to be getting bigger the farther she walked so Bella finally just decided to sit down and wait it out. She located a doorway in a nearby building and plopped down in front of it. At that point she didn't care if she pissed off the owners or not; Bella just wanted to get her bearings while she waited for the pain in her head to subside.

Bella leaned her head against the door and closed her eyes. Part of her hoped that she would go to sleep and wake up in her bed back home. She said a small prayer of gratitude that her arm didn't hurt but she wasn't about to look down to see if it was still attached. That was just too much for her to deal with at the moment.

Bella's mind drifted as she sat in the doorway. For a moment she thought she was dreaming; she could almost smell her grandfather nearby but no, he was dead and the scent was different. Different and yet the same. Bella chuckled to herself. _I've really done it this time,_ she thought. _Now my nose is hallucinating._

An odd buzzing noise snapped Bella out of her daze. She opened her eyes to see two guys wearing the same identical suit pointing a glowy stick at her. She blinked and realized that it was just one guy as he slowly swam into focus. Strange, that dude looked kinda familiar.

"Hello," the man finally said. "I'm the Doctor. Who are you?"

 _A doctor!_ Bella thought with happiness. _He can check my arm._ "Oh good, I found one," she said in a singsong voice. "Can you take a look at my arm please? I fell out of the sky and bent it wrong. I've got a new angle I think."

The man's eyebrow raised as Bella continued. "Is my arm even still there? I tried looking at it but it freaked me out so I stopped. It doesn't hurt though so I think it might be gone now. I hope not cause I really need my arm, you know?"

Bella watched as the man slowly moved to crouch down beside her. She could see his eyes shift downward towards the arm in question but she refused to follow his gaze. "Is it still there?"

"It's still there." the stranger confirmed softly as he examined her with his eyes. "You've got a nasty break though. Bit of a head wound too. Can you tell me what happened?"

Bella debated for a moment and then finally decided to just tell him the truth. "I was trying to open the door on this wardrobe at my grandfather's house cause there was a light and there shouldn't have been a light cause the power'd been shut off to his house for ages and I wanted to know what was causing it but then I was falling from the sky and now people are saying that pepperpots are aliens and they're all throwing this big ole' block party so I sat down here to figure out how to get back to my grandfather's place before they tear it down."

To Bella's surprise, he didn't seem puzzled by her odd story. Instead, he lifted up the glowy stick she'd noticed earlier and pointed the tip at her face. "I see. Can you look at the light for a moment? I need to see your eyes." She tried to obey but the light was bright so she turned away and closed her eyes to rest them.

Sometime later she felt him start tapping her cheek. "No no no sweetheart don't go to sleep. I need you to stay awake and look at me. Can you open your eyes and look at me? Come on, you can do it. Just open your eyes for me sweetheart." Bella moaned in protest; she had told him her story so he needed to go away now but the stranger kept tapping her face and crooning at her. When it became obvious that he wasn't going to stop she opened her eyes and glared at him blearily.

The man smiled in obvious relief. "There's a good girl; just keep looking at me, eh? I need you to stay awake until I can get you back to the Tardis. What's your name?"

"Bella. Bella Fugate." she answered.

"Hello, Bella. Do you think you can stand for me? We need to get you sorted."

She thought about it for a moment. "Uh, I think so. I had to stand up to get here so I should be able to. Are we going to the hospital now?"

"Something like that," the man responded as he helped Bella to her feet.

"Okay," Bella replied agreeably as he began guiding her through the crowd. "Mister, when we get to the hospital can you make sure they see my medical alert badge? It's on my necklace. You guys tend to freak out if you don't read it first."

She felt him tense a bit before he asked. "Medical alert badge? What does it say?"

"It tells you guys not to freak out cause my pulse is off and stuff. Got some birth defects; grandpa says I inherited it from him. Not sure how cause my dad was normal but my blood's a bit funny and I've got an extra heart. Doctors say it's from inbreeding but Gramps says they're crazy. Oh, and I'm allergic to aspirin, too. Please don't let them give me aspirin; I get really sick when you give me aspirin."

"I won't," the man replied as he led her through the crowds.


	4. Chapter 4: Impossible Position

**Author's note: I own nothing but Bella and her backstory. If I did, I would be one happy camper, however.**

 **Also, I have no idea where this is headed. It's just been stuck in my head for a while and since it won't go away I'm going to play with it.**

The Doctor pondered over the mysterious female sleeping on a bed in the Tardis Infirmary. Void matter had revealed that she was from another dimension, doubtless pulled here as a result of the Reality Bomb test in the Dalek Crucible. DNA tests confirmed that the girl was three-quarters Time Lord and one-quarter human. She was impossible, completely impossible; Time Lords weren't biologically capable of interbreeding with humans. Oh, the external bits matched up well enough but the genetic code was far too different to allow for conception.

Or so that's what he'd always thought. Even at that, a human-Time Lord hybrid should be sterile much like mules on Earth yet at least one of her parents had been a hybrid.

 _This girl should not exist._

By encouraging her confused ramblings as he half-carried her back to the Tardis he had determined that she was from the year 2018; she was 48 years old from a family in Eastern Kentucky that could trace its lineage back to the 1700s. Due to her Time Lord heritage, however, she appeared to look like a human in her late teens/early twenties. _That probably gave the medical community fits,_ the Doctor mused.

And it had. The medical alert badge she had told him about had not only contained information about her physical "deformities," it had opened up to reveal an SD card filled with her medical data. In the dimension she was from research had been conducted to determine the cause of the "two-hearted Fugates" and they had concluded that due to the geographic isolation of the area that inbreeding was to blame. Unfortunately, it also told him that the woman sleeping nearby was the last known "two-hearted Fugate" in existence since her maternal grandfather had passed a decade previously.

 _But someone had survived the Time War._ They had managed to escape to the Earth of another dimension, somehow avoided detection and now, thanks to the Daleks, that dimension was probably gone. All that was left to show for it was the lone female half-breed sleeping before him.

And now, when she woke up, he had to tell her that she could never go home.


	5. Chapter 5: Awakening

**A/N: Thanks to Time-Twilight for the reviews! I must confess I'm a bit surprised; I started this simply to get it out of my head but thank you thank you THANK YOU for reading.**

 **And still, I own nothing but Bella. Guaranteed I would be having some serious fun if I did, though. ;)**

Bella awoke feeling as if her mouth had been stuffed with cotton. She groaned, trying to swallow and rid herself of the sensation. As her eyes opened she discovered that she was in a hospital of some sort; really modern-looking but strange just the same.

The next thing she noticed was an odd humming; it sounded somehow mechanical yet organic at the same time. Strangely enough it was the only sound in the room. _What type of hospital is this?_ She wondered. _They didn't even give me a TV._ That was when she realized that the place was TOO quiet; Bella couldn't hear any footsteps, intercom announcements, or even people talking in the background.

When she went to sit up she discovered that someone had placed an IV in her left arm while she had been asleep; her right arm was covered in a bandage. Her hoodie was missing but the tank top she last remembered wearing was still in place; she shifted the light blanket that was draped over her and discovered that she was still wearing her favorite jeans as well.

 _That's strange,_ Bella thought. _Don't hospitals always stick you in those backless gowns?_

Before she could ponder her situation further a door opened and a man wearing a brown suit entered the room. "Ahh, you're awake!" the man said as he approached her bed.

"Where am I?" Bella asked.

"You don't remember?" he asked. When she shook her head slowly he hummed and took her head in his hands to tilt it up and look into her eyes. "Hmm, your pupils are normal today; the scan I did earlier indicated that the concussion was healing nicely. Normally I would speed things along a bit but with all of the Arton currently infusing your system I'm not sure that would be wise. As it is, you are very lucky to be alive and I'm not willing to take the risk of harming you further; your body is severely lacking in several nutrients so I doubt that you would be able to produce sufficient Lindos hormones to regenerate until I manage to correct the deficiencies."

"Huh?"

He moved his hands down and started palpating her neck. "Have you ever heard of Gallifrey?"

"No." Bella croaked.

He abruptly moved away from her, poured some liquid into a cup, and handed it to her. "Drink that. It will help with your throat."

Bella took a sip. It tasted like some strange sort of Gatorade. "What is this?" she asked as she finished it.

"Electrolyte replacement designed for your physiology," he explained as he refilled her cup and urged her to drink some more. As she obeyed he said a few words to her in a foreign language.

Bella stared at him blankly.

The man looked at her quizzically. "You're not familiar with that language, not even a little bit? Do you recognize it at all?"

"No," Bella answered as she handed the cup back to him. He placed the empty container on a nearby stand, grabbed a stool, and sat on it beside her. For a moment they just looked at each other; Bella trying to figure things out and the stranger obviously trying to decide the best way to proceed.

"Blimey," he said as he scratched the back of his head thoughtfully. "I don't think you have a clue. Did your grandfather ever tell you stories about where he came from?"

"My grandfather?" Bella was even more confused by the random question. "No, why would he? He spent his whole life in the mountains. Where am I, what happened?" Bella wanted to get this conversation back on track. More importantly, she wanted to get home before they bulldozed the house.

The house. She had been in her grandfather's house. Her eyes widened as the memories clicked back in place and she sat up abruptly. "I've gotta go!" Bella tried to reach over and remove the IV in her arm.

"No you don't!" The man grabbed her shoulders and gently pressed her back into the bed. "You're not going anywhere until you've recovered."

"You don't understand!" Bella cried in frustration. "They're going to bulldoze his house tomorrow! It's my last chance to see it! I left my camera there and everything; I've gotta go _now_!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," he soothed her, holding her gently but firmly as she struggled. "But you can't go back to that house. I'm sorry but the house is gone."

"No!" she screamed in protest and redoubled her efforts to escape.


	6. Chapter 6: The Doctor's Dilemma

**A/N: Many thanks to Time-Twilight for the continued reviews. I worked to make this chapter longer in response to your request.**

 **I have a question, however. Since I am trying to switch the viewpoints between Bella and the Doctor on this, would it be confusing if I marked the viewpoint switch and continued their story in the same chapter? Each chapter break has been because I needed to switch point of view and being able to switch mid-chapter would allow me to make the chapters longer. Thanks!**

 **On another note, this will be my last chapter for tonight. I will work on this some more when I take a break from the other book I'm writing.**

 **~~~###~~~**

The Doctor was forced to practically drape himself over the upset girl as she fought to get out of bed. He didn't want to hurt her; her arm was only partially healed and she had suffered some cracked ribs and other injuries as well in her fall. She needed to rest and while he didn't want to, he would be forced to sedate her soon if she didn't calm down in order to prevent re-injury.

"Shh, it's okay, you're safe, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry but you need to relax before you hurt yourself again. Calm down, just breathe, and we can talk about this, eh?" He placed his mouth close to her ear and spoke to her in that tone of voice that he knew was calming to humans; she was still suffering from confusion due to her head injury but he still hoped against hope that he could soothe her. She might be more Gallifreyan than human but he didn't want to risk alarming her further if she wasn't used to telepathic touch.

Suddenly the girl stopped struggling and burst into tears. "It's gone? The house is gone?"

The Doctor pulled back and looked at her sadly. "I'm sorry, but the house was destroyed in the same event that brought you here."

"But it was all that I had! That was the only piece of him that I had left! It can't be gone, not yet! Please," she begged. "Please, just let me go check. I'll come right back, but I've gotta know. I've got to see it once more to say goodbye. Please!"

"I'm sorry but you can't." The Doctor's hearts broke as she began to sob brokenly. He moved to sit beside her on the bed and gathered her in his arms.

As he comforted the sobbing girl the Doctor debated upon the best way to proceed. He didn't want to risk upsetting her further until she had properly healed; she had barely survived being ripped across the Void and he honestly didn't know how much more her body could handle without further research.

More to the point, she was the last. The last-known living female Gallifreyan in existence. In time, with proper training, she would become a Time Lady. Regardless of how the Council of the Time Lords had viewed miscegenation and hybrids of their kind, she was the only one left besides him to continue their species.

 _And she doesn't even know what she is_ the Doctor thought sadly as she cried herself to sleep in his arms.

~~~###~~~

The Doctor carefully placed her head back on the pillow and rearranged the twisted covers. Muting the sounds of his equipment, he scanned her to verify that she hadn't re-injured herself during the altercation. Satisfied at the readings, he dimmed the lights before heading to the Library.

Once there he immediately headed to the section on Gallifreyan biology. Surely someone at some point had documented the case of a Human-Gallifreyan hybrid; if it existed then the Doctor was determined to find it.

When he came up empty in that section the Doctor moved on to Gallifreyan History. Tome after tome he searched, looking for something, _anything_ that would give him information about how to proceed. He even combed the relevant sections on humans just to make sure he hadn't missed something.

Nothing. The Time Lord threw the last book across the room in frustration. There wasn't a single recorded instance of a Human-Time Lord hybrid. Even with serious genetic manipulation the girl should not exist but she did and she was currently sleeping in his Infirmary.

 _I'll just have to figure it out as I go along then,_ the Doctor finally decided.

Decision made, the Doctor had to next determine the best way to help her adapt to her new circumstances. From previous visits to the Appalachian Mountain region in his universe, the Doctor knew that many rarely traveled very far out of their home territory; even worse, some were quite suspicious of outsiders and of anything significantly different from what they were accustomed to. As a result she might not only resist his attempts to educate her, she might actually attempt to escape and return home since she didn't know yet that she had been transported to another universe.

He didn't dare tell her what had happened; not until she had fully recovered. He doubted that she would believe him right now at any rate. He needed to come up with a way to distract her from asking too many questions while also engendering trust, and he needed to do it fast.


	7. Chapter 7: Fishy Situation

**A/N: I own nothing but Bella.**

 **Question: Would you rather have shorter chapters and faster updates, or longer chapters and slower updates?**

~~~###~~~

Bella was dreaming about her grandfather. It was one of her favorite memories; Gramps had stormed into the Social Worker's office like a vengeful god after she'd been found shivering in the backseat of her father's car by a patrolling State Policeman while he was playing cards one cold winter's night.

Finally warm again, Bella had been dozing in a corner chair when he arrived. She could remember the ensuing argument like it was yesterday; the Social Worker had planned to place Bella in foster care because she didn't believe that her 100-plus-year-old grandfather was capable of properly caring for the rambunctious four-year-old child.

They had argued back and forth for what seemed like ages to young Bella when finally Gramps stood up, grabbed the woman's face in his hands, and said simply, "you are placing Bella into my custody NOW."

And she had without further ado. When Bella asked her grandfather what he'd done to change her mind he had laughed. "Old Indian trick; you can convince anyone to do anything if you know how. I'll show you when you're older."

He had taken her out for pizza after that so Bella had promptly forgotten.

~~~###~~~

Once again she could almost smell her grandfather; it was so similar and yet so different that Bella couldn't help but take a deep sniff as she awoke from her slumber. _How can I still smell him when he's dead?_ Bella wondered as she slowly opened her eyes.

Bella wasn't lucky enough to be at home in her bed. Noo, she was still stuck in the strangely quiet hospital with Doctor Brown Suit dozing in a nearby chair. It looked as if he had fallen asleep while reading; a book was cracked open upon his lap and a pair of glasses were askew on his face.

Bella took the opportunity to study him. He was old, really old; Bella had never seen someone that old. The oldest person she had ever encountered had been her grandfather yet she suspected that Brown Suit was even older than _him._ She didn't know how that could be possible but, then again, nothing about this entire situation made sense.

 _Something is definitely rotten in Denmark._ She had fought that dude for all she was worth, kicking and screaming and fighting yet not a single orderly or nurse had shown up to help him subdue her.

 _Where was everyone?_ If no one had shown up to help him hold her down, then chances were that no one was available to help. If no one was available to help, then chances were that the hospital she was trapped in was empty except for her and Brownie Dude.

 _Now why would a hospital be empty?_ Bella considered the possibilities with growing trepidation. Hospitals were empty after they were abandoned; could this dude be squatting there after the place had been closed for business?

The scarier question was: W _hat did he want with her?_

Bella decided that she really didn't want to stick around long enough to find out. Ever so slowly Bella reached across her body and carefully removed the IV still stuck in her arm, biting her tongue to keep from making a sound. That accomplished, inch by inch she shifted the blanket spread over her and carefully slid her feet out from under it, watching Brown Suit like a hawk the whole time for signs of awakening. Moving at an incremental pace Bella finally managed to achieve a standing position without disturbing the stranger. With a devilish grin upon her face, she then proceeded to tiptoe barefoot out the open door.


	8. Chapter 8: The Great Escape

**A/N: I own nothing but Bella, unfortunately.**

~~~###~~~

After discovering herself in the exact same corridor for the tenth time Bella was finally forced to admit that she might have a problem.

She couldn't be lost; Bella _never_ got lost. She hadn't even been lost when her Dad and his new girlfriend had driven off without her at the drive-in theater when she was 10.

So there was no possible way that she could be lost. All she had to do was close her eyes, relax, and she would know her way home. Her dad didn't call her Pigeon for nothing.

But for some reason that little trick was just not working. She closed her eyes, opening her mind to reach out for home and...nothing. _Could I be too far away?_ The time she had been forgotten at the drive-in she had been two counties over but she had found her way back home just fine. Okay, so her grandfather had picked her up before she had walked very far but even so, she had known how to get home and had been headed in the right direction when he pulled up.

There was simply no way that she could be too far out to find her way back home. Could she?

Wonky homing sense or no, something else was definitely off about this place. Bella had passed the exact same library at least fifteen times while she walked, and she had spotted that room in three different corridors. Completely different corridors; she had checked.

Even stranger than the mysterious moving Library were the other rooms she encountered. She had seen a giant flower garden, a room containing a roller coaster, a kitchen stocked to the gills with her favorite foods (Bella stopped for a snack in that one), and a swimming pool larger than a lake that made her itch to dive in.

Every single room behind every single door that she opened contained something that she liked and Bella was beginning to wonder if she had fallen down the rabbit hole into a world that was actively trying to distract her from her plans to leave.

Bella grew more and more frightened as time wore on until she reached the point where she started praying out loud. "I wanna go home. Why can't I feel my home? Please, just help me find my home!"

 _Snick._ Bella turned at the sound to discover an open doorway a short ways down the corridor behind her. While she was convinced that the doorway hadn't been there moments before she knew a lucky break when she saw one and trotted towards the entrance.

It was a...a gymnasium? Bella didn't know what to call the room that she saw. The doorway had opened into this huge round room; what appeared to be giant coral struts reached up to support the high ceiling. A circular, steampunk-looking counter covered with knobs, dials, and things she couldn't identify sat front and center atop of a platform made out of metal grating. A glass chimney filled with a warm greenish light rose out of the counter as a centerpiece.

It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. Bella was so stunned that for several moments she just stood and gaped. Eventually Bella recovered from her surprise and slowly started walking around the room. She wasn't brave enough to touch anything but it was amazing to look at.

Bella was so awed by what she saw that she explored that room for a full twenty minutes before she realized that there was another set of doors. The doors looked like plain old garden variety wood and sat beneath what appeared to be some type of back-lit sign that was facing outwards. Scarcely daring to hope, Bella opened them.


	9. Chapter 9: Revelations

**A/N: I still own only Bella but I can't stop hoping that will change ;)**

 **I can't believe I've written so much in so little time. I guess this story was ready to be free.**

 **~~~###~~~**

The Doctor rubbed his face blearily as he tried to wake up. Bella would be waking soon; she had slept a lot while she healed but he expected her to have a bit more energy after this round of slumber. He calculated how much she had slept during this round: he had spent five point six hours in the library after she had cried herself to sleep; since he had dozed for four hours after returning to the Infirmary to keep an eye on her she had slept a total of ten point seven-three hours.

 _Blimey,_ the Doctor thought after calculating the time. _That girl can out-sleep Rose Tyler._

He closed the book on his lap and placed it on the table beside the chair along with his glasses before finally glancing over to where his newest companion was sleeping.

Bella was gone.

He raced over to the bed and placed his hand upon the covers. Cold. She had been gone for a while. Why hadn't the Tardis alerted him? He reached out to the time ship and caught a distinctive tone of amusement. Whatever the girl was doing his ship was definitely unconcerned. The Doctor felt himself relaxing slightly. Bella had probably woken up and decided to go exploring. Regardless, he needed to check on her and make sure she had eaten. She would need extra nutrients while she recovered. He asked the Tardis to show him her location.

He bolted towards the Console Room when he received her response.

~~~###~~~

The Doctor skidded to a stop as he entered the room. The doors were open, but where was Bella? Surely she….

Then he saw her. The girl was sitting on the floor beside the open doors, staring at the planetscape outside. He had left them parked high in Earth's orbit just in case he picked up any further anomalies and for a moment he breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't just taken them into the Vortex. He still wanted to strangle his Tardis though; the girl could have panicked.

He knew that Bella had to be aware of his entrance yet she didn't move. Instead she continued staring outside as if mesmerized with her mouth hanging partly open. Cautiously, he moved to sit beside her.

"That's," Bella pointed towards an object on the Earth's horizon. "That's the International Space Station."

Her voice conveyed her wonder. "Yes, it is," the Doctor acknowledged.

"They don't show that angle in the pictures. Not ever. You only see pictures of it from the shuttles that go there."

"No. They don't," the Doctor agreed.

"I'm in space." It was a statement.

"Yes."

"In a spaceship?"

"Yes."

She poked at the open doorway with a finger. A glow appeared around her fingertip. "I thought it was fake till I tried to stick my hand out. But it's real, isn't it? That's a force field, like they show in science fiction."

By this point the Doctor couldn't tell if she was simply amazed or too frightened to know how to respond. She was talking softly, calmly, yet he could detect a tremor in her voice. "Yes, that's a force field; and yes, what you are seeing is real."

Bella finally turned to face him. Her eyes were dilated with emotion. "You've got the circle doodles."

The Doctor was taken aback. "Sorry?"

She pointed towards the console. "On your monitor. Your Post-it notes have circle doodles. You've even got circle doodles on your screen."

The Doctor realized that she was talking about the notes he had written in Circular Gallifreyan. "You've seen them before?" He asked hopefully.

"Gramps drew them all the time. He liked to fill sketchbooks with them; he said they helped him think."

"Did he tell you what they were called?"

Bella shrugged. "He just called them doodles but he showed me how to write some stuff with them."

The Doctor quickly pulled out a pen and notepad from his pocket. "Can you show me?"

Bella hesitated before she accepted the items. "I'm not very good; I haven't made them in years."

The Doctor smiled. At this point he would be delighted with chicken scratches. "That's okay; I just want to see what you know."

The girl thought for a moment and then began to write. Very carefully she sketched out a word. "That's my name," she explained when she showed it to him.

She had written _beautiful._ "Yes, it is. Show me another."

"This means evil." She had written _Rassilon._

"This stands for death." She sketched out the word for Dalek.

"This is freedom." It was the word for Earth.

"And this means home." She showed him the word for Gallifrey.

~~~###~~~

Bella turned to stare outside again after she handed him her last drawing. For several minutes they both just watched the Earth floating beneath them. The Doctor processed the new information; the word choices she had been taught were obviously deliberate. Had her grandfather taught her those mistranslations for amusement, or to send a message?

He doubted that he would ever know.

"Where am I?" Bella asked after several minutes had passed.

"You're onboard the Tardis." _Was she having trouble accepting the truth?_ The Doctor wondered.

Bella rounded on him. "No! Where. Am. I?" She was getting upset.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're asking."

She pointed to towards Italy. "You see that little tip, where it looks like the heel of a boot? That's not on my planet." She pointed again. "Those mountains are shaped wrong, that whole continent is wonky and yet you have the International Space Station. Where. Am. I?" Bella was visibly shaking.

The Doctor closed his eyes and grimaced. He wasn't ready for this conversation.

"You're in another dimension," he finally confessed.

"Huh?" The Doctor couldn't tell if she didn't understand what that was or simply didn't believe him.

He tried to explain. "You said you were in your grandfather's house, trying to open a wardrobe because you saw a light, remember that?"

"Yeah," Bella answered.

"Well, that wardrobe wasn't a wardrobe. It was a Tardis."

"A Tardis," she repeated. "You said this," she gestured around them, "was a Tardis. What I saw was a wardrobe; it didn't look anything at all like this."

"Right, I understand what you're saying," the Doctor agreed. "But Tardises can change what they look like; they have a chameleon circuit that helps them blend in. That Tardis disguised itself as a wardrobe."

"How can you possibly know what the hell it was when you never saw it?" Bella demanded.

"Because that's how I found you. I detected the residual energy from a Tardis where you emerged from the rift. In fact, you're covered in it along with Void matter. It's fading now, but you received a heavy dose of Artron radiation from a Tardis right before you arrived. It's probably what helped keep you alive."

Bella shook her head. "I don't understand."

"In order to travel to another dimension you need a Tardis. After the War, the different dimensions, the different realities, were all sealed off. Because of that the Tardis would have been dying. It wouldn't have been able to pull power from it's home dimension so it would have been dormant. It literally would have been starving to death."

When he saw that she understood him he continued. "Well, there is a race of beings called the Daleks. You called them the Pepperpots when we met, remember?"

Bella nodded.

"These Daleks wanted to destroy the walls between the dimensions, to cause all of reality to collapse. They built this device, called a Reality Bomb, and planned to detonate it on the Universe. I stopped it, but before I could they initiated a small test."

Bella's eyes widened in horror.

"That test caused the walls between realities, between dimensions, to weaken. When they did, the Tardis in your grandfather's bedroom was once again able to receive some power. That's why you noticed the glowing."

"But what does that have to do with me?" Bella asked.

"She would have sensed, would have known when your dimension started to collapse. She may have even made it worse when she tried to instinctively siphon energy through the rift. And you, the child of a Time Lord, the descendant of _her_ Time Lord, were standing right there in front of her when it happened, so she saved you. She wrapped you up inside her heart and threw you out to safety."

The Doctor gently wiped a tear from her cheek. "Her last act was to give her life to save yours."

"So it's all gone? My whole world is gone?"

Instead of condolences, he gathered her up into his arms and rocked her while she cried.


	10. Chapter 10: Hope

**A/N: As always, I own nothing but Bella. Le sigh!**

 **Oh, I discovered that this story had been added to the Doctor Who Stories awesomesauce community. Whoo! Hoo! Thank you for sharing my story, you are awesome!**

 **And thank you Time-Twilight for all of your awesome reviews. I am so excited every time I get them.**

~~~###~~~

Bella felt numb and yet in agony when she finally stepped out of the shower. The Doctor had offered to remain close just in case she needed assistance. Bella had politely refused so he had instructed her to meet him in the Console Room when she was ready so that he could take them out to dinner.

All Bella wanted was to be left alone. She wanted to crawl into her new bed, pull up the covers, and hide from the insane reality that she found herself in. She wanted to scream into the pillows and cry until there wasn't a drop of water left in her body.

Bella wasn't sure how much she believed of the story that the Doctor had woven (her grandfather was a space alien? _Really?_ ) but her instincts told her that his intentions were good so she decided to play along while she figured out what to do.

She had to admit that it was an amazing coincidence that the exact same doodles her grandfather made were considered a written language by the brown-suited stranger but that was no longer Bella's biggest concern. She was more freaked out by the fact that this self-professed space alien had two hearts beating in his chest. She had heard them beating as he comforted her and while she had to confess that the sound had soothed her in a way she hadn't felt since her grandfather had passed, it frightened her just the same. Even more upsetting, Bella had finally figured out the source of the mysterious scent that reminded her so much of her grandfather. It was him.

Bella didn't know which was worse: being a defective human or a normal space alien. How did the ugly duckling feel when he realized that his whole life had been a lie?

Bella didn't have the answer to that question.

 _Why would Gramps lie to me? What possible reason could he have had to keep something so important from me?_

Even with all of the evidence she had been presented Bella still doubted the truth of the Doctor's words. If a man can lie and claim that a tiny little piece of furniture was a spaceship as huge as the one she was apparently flying in, that man can lie about anything.

As a result Bella wondered at his motives for "helping" her. What if he wasn't a space alien like he claimed? What if he was just part of some freaky government project that planned to use her for whatever reason?

Bella had encountered shady scientists before; one time while she had been walking out to visit her dad a stranger that offered her a ride had actually been a determined scientist who had been secretly stalking her. She was considered a novelty by the medical community and some of them were willing to do anything to learn more about her unusual medical condition.

 _But he's got two hearts like me_ Bella argued with herself. If he wasn't a space alien, maybe he was just somebody who had experienced his share of creepy scientists and wanted to help her out. He could be lying even to himself on his space-alien status. It could just be wishful thinking.

 _What if it was_ all _a lie?_ Bella had to admit that geography wasn't her strong point. Maybe she had remembered her maps wrong. Maybe things had changed since she last went to school. It had been 30 years since she graduated, after all. It wasn't like she studied geography for a hobby. What if that really was her Earth floating below them and he just wanted to convince her otherwise to keep her from going home? While that didn't explain how she had ended up wherever she ended up (Bella had never been to England so she still wasn't convinced even with the Doctor's assurance), at least then she would at least have a home to return to.

 _What if it had been faked?_ Seriously, the so-called spaceship she was in was huge. How could something that big possibly fly, how could just one person be capable of flying it, and how the heck would he land the thing? He could have rigged some kind of barrier so she wouldn't be able to go outside, then played some video that had been recorded by a satellite for all Bella knew. She had never seen space videos with such high resolution but she wouldn't be surprised if the government had that sort of capability. What she saw when she opened those doors might have been an elaborate trick.

Pondering all of the questions Bella realized that the situation might not be as bad as she thought. While she didn't sense any deception from the man, there was still a chance that the Doctor was trying to trick her and that gave her hope.

She might actually be able to make it home.

Sighing, Bella realized that she wasn't going to learn anything new about her situation if she continued to stand there and stare at herself in the mirror. She finished running a comb through her long black hair and exited her room.


	11. Chapter 11: Distractions

The Doctor noticed that Bella's eyes were still red when she finally returned to the console room. He had wanted to stay close and monitor her emotional state but had foolishly given her the option instead of just staying in the room while she showered and changed.

He was concerned about her; Bella had just discovered that her whole world was lost and that the foundation of her life was based on falsehoods. The Doctor remembered how he had felt after Gallifrey and suspected that Bella felt a similar grief at the loss of her world. As for the rest the Doctor could not conceive of how upset she must be.

On top of everything else, the round of nutritional supplements he had placed in her IV would have a few side effects. Her body had been starved its entire life of the substances it needed but could not get on Earth; nutrients essential to the healthy development of a young Gallifreyan. While some of the damage was irreversible in her current body (she would probably not grow much beyond her current 147 centimeters), some of it was not; the changes in her body as it repaired itself would affect her hormone levels and thus her mood. Fortunately, by the time he was finished with the rounds of treatments he had planned she would be able to regenerate into a healthy Time Lady when her time came. In the meantime he was prepared to take whatever steps were necessary to keep her healthy, safe, and stable.

A distraction was in order.

"Do you mind giving me a hand?" the Doctor asked his newest passenger when she seemed hesitant to approach the console.

Bella shrugged. "What do you need me to do?"

The Doctor pointed to a section on the console. "Turn that dial there anti-clockwise until the light above it turns green." As he watched her carefully follow his instructions the Doctor started flipping switches to prepare the Tardis for the trip. He gave her a few more buttons to press and lights to watch, arranging her duties so that she would be close enough for him to grab in the event the flight became a bit rocky; due to her malnutrition her bones were a bit less dense than a human's so he didn't want to take any chances.

Just as he predicted the Tardis gave a lurch and Bella began to tumble backwards; the Doctor darted behind her and grabbed the edges of the console on each side to prevent her fall. He flipped a disconnected switch on her far side after the Tardis landed so that she wouldn't realize that the save had been intentional.

"Why didn't you get me to flip the switch? I could have done it," Bella offered as he quickly moved away.

"Sorry," the Doctor lied, "I'm so used to doing this on my own I didn't even think about it. Anyway, we've landed. Ready for dinner?"

"We've landed already? Don't you have to contact Air Traffic Control or something and get permission?"

"Nope!" he popped the p for emphasis as he donned his coat and headed to the bay doors.

"Where are we?" the girl asked as she followed behind him.

The Doctor grinned and threw open the bay doors. "Bella Fugate, citizen of Kentucky, welcome to Paris, France."

He stepped to the side once he exited the Tardis to better watch her reaction. She reminded him of a timid puppy the way she cautiously took in the view as she hesitantly stepped outside. He noted how her gaze rested on the Eiffel Tower in the distance for several moments before continuing their scan and decided that he would take her there as an additional treat after their meal; feeding her curiosity would maintain her interest.

"What's wrong?" he asked when she started frowning.

"Is this some sort of period festival or something? It looks like the Roaring Twenties."

The Doctor grinned. "Hardly. We've landed in 1928, right before the Great Depression. Right now, as we speak, George Gershwin is staying at the Majestic Hotel. We could try to see him if you like."

Bella looked confused as she began to turn and look at the skyline around them. "1928? How are we-"

She sat down on the ground as her legs suddenly gave way. The Doctor was beside her in a flash, pulling out his sonic to scan her. "Bella, what's wrong? Did you feel dizzy?" She appeared stunned as she focused on something behind them.

The Doctor finally realized what was wrong. "Oh, that's right. You weren't fully conscious by the time I got you to the Tardis so you haven't seen her properly. Bella, welcome to my world."

"But, but," She seemed to be having trouble finding the words. "But it looks like a box."

"Yes, it does." he answered patiently while he waited for her brain to start functioning again.

"But it's so big inside!"

"Yes, it is." The Doctor noted with amusement that he hadn't needed to travel in time to distract her; all he had needed to do was show her the outside of his ship if the look on her face was any indication.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and encouraged her to stand. She accepted his assistance silently as she continued to stare at his ship. "It's all right, it's just my ship," he reassured the girl as he waited for her to regain proper control of her limbs.

"It's a box. The outside is a box."

"Yes, the outside is a box."

He allowed her to pull away and slowly approach the ship. He couldn't help but grin as he watched her carefully examine it. She stepped just inside the bay doors, placing her hands beyond where the exterior sides existed then tried to curl her head around the doorway to see the outside panel.

She looked back at him in amazement. "Wow."

The Doctor laughed at her expression. "If you think this is amazing, just wait till you see your first planet." He coaxed her out of the time ship and closed the doors. "Come on, let's go eat."

~~~###~~~

"So we're really in Paris in 1928?" Bella asked for the fifth time during their meal.

He nodded. "Anything you would like to see while we're here?"

Bella thought for a moment. "Can we see George Orwell?"

"George Orwell?" The Doctor had expected her to ask for a landmark, not a person, but he _had_ offered to show her Gershwin so that might have given her the idea.

"George Orwell. He wrote _Down and Out in Paris and London_ based on experiences he had while staying at the rue du Pot de Fer; according to Wikipedia he moved there in early '28." She was getting excited. "Hey, he worked as a dishwasher in different restaurants back then. Do you think he might work here?" She started looking around in hopes of seeing him.

"Orwell? I offer you Gershwin and you ask for Orwell?" The Doctor couldn't resist teasing her; she seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of seeing the author.

"Gershwin's boring; Orwell makes you _think._ "

"Gershwin is _not_ boring. Have you even heard any of his music?"

"He's the one that wrote _Rhapsody in Blue_ , right?"

The Doctor's eyebrows rose in astonishment. Ignorant she was not. "Yes, he did. You don't like it?"

"Sounds like elevator music. I prefer Dvorák or Tchaikovsky any day."

 _Curiouser and curiouser._ "Who taught you about classical music?"

"A friend of mine back in high school dared me to listen to _Swan Lake_ and I liked it _._ So can we try to find Orwell? Please?"

Bella awarded him with her very first smile when he agreed.


	12. Chapter 12: Contemplation

**A/N: I am not happy with how this turned out but I re-wrote it several times so it will have to do. I promise you will get a bit more action in the next chapter.**

 **~~~###~~~**

She had met _George Orwell_.

 _She_ had met George Orwell.

Holy crap. _She had met George Orwell!_ She had met George Orwell and he was cool!

Bella had been so amazed by the day's events that she had completely forgotten to try to find her way home. Not only had she met one of her favorite authors, she had gotten to eat real French food (cheese in France _did_ taste different than it did in America), climb the Eiffel Tower, and help fly a spaceship.

Seeing the outside of the Tardis had won first prize for the most impossible thing Bella had ever encountered. She found herself unable to conceive of how something so big could fit inside a box so small. It was like Narnia!

The comparison to Narnia reminded her of the strange glowing wardrobe she had been trying to open right before she found herself falling through the sky. When Bella had seen the similarities between the wardrobe and the Tardis all of her theories about the Doctor had jumped into a blender and were now one big gooey mess floating through Bella's brain.

 _Why would her grandfather have lied to her?_ Bella continued to ask herself. To believe the Doctor she would have to admit that she had been lied to her whole life by the one person she trusted the most. Bella just couldn't do that. She didn't care what the Doctor said, there was no way her Gramps would have lied to her. Not about something so important.

 _Would he?_

Fortunately, Bella didn't have to think about that right now. Right now she was safely snuggled into a comfy bed after the most wonderful adventure she had ever experienced. She would worry about how to get home tomorrow. The house was gone by now anyway.

~~~###~~~

Some time after Bella fell asleep the Doctor entered her room and stretched out in a chair by her bed. She had been considerably easier to distract than he had expected that day; whenever he had noticed a shadow falling over her face all he had needed to do was direct her attention towards something new to dispel it.

He had kept the girl out until she was thoroughly exhausted to prevent her from thinking too much about her situation. He planned to keep Bella so busy for the next few weeks that she would grow content in his care before she realized what had happened.

He sat there in the semi-darkness quietly cultivating an awareness of the sleeping girl; he needed to memorize her telepathic signature so that he could track her easier if they were ever separated. After a while he finally grew restless and left to tinker in the Console room.


	13. Chapter 13: Confrontation

**A/N: Thanks go out to Dreaming-of-evil, my lovely daughter, for helping beta this despite the fact that she has a ton of homework tonight.**

 **And thanks to everyone else for the follows, favorites, and reviews. You are awesome!**

 **~~~###~~~**

Bella awoke with a small scream. She had dreamed that her dogs were starving to death, locked in her house waiting for her to return home.

They were dying and here she was flying around in a spaceship without a single care in the world. What type of person was she to forget about her furbabies so easily?

She quickly dressed and set off to find the Doctor.

He heard her approach and crawled out from where he was working beneath the console. "I was wondering when you would wake up! Would you rather eat or get your checkup over with first?" he asked with a grin.

Bella refused to be derailed from her purpose. "Mister, I appreciate everything that you've done, yesterday was wonderful, but I _really_ need to go home now. My dogs are stuck in the house all alone and they'll starve to death if I don't feed them. Then I've got to call work and see if I can keep them from firing me for missing however many days I've been gone and go job hunting if I can't. Will you _please_ take me home now?"

The Doctor's face fell as she spoke. "Bella, we talked about this yesterday, remember?" he asked softly.

"Yeah but then I got to thinking that geography's not my strong suit and it _has_ been a while since I've been in school so maybe I'm _not_ in another universe like I thought. And either way, wherever I am, I have GOT to go home. My dogs are going to starve!"

The Doctor's eyes were sad as he moved to clasp Bella's upper arms. "They're gone, Bella. I'm sorry but they're gone. I know it's hard but you need to accept that. Your universe was destroyed. Even if by some miracle it survived, there is absolutely no way I could get you home. I'm sorry."

Bella tried to pull away but the Doctor refused to loosen his grip. Instead he turned her around and started marching her out of the console room while she continued to argue. "You don't understand! I can't be in another universe. I mean, seriously, how ridiculous is that? I know all of this has been crazy but that's going a bit beyond. I made a mistake, that's all. I messed up the geography. All you have to do is get me close to Kentucky. Just close, like somewhere in the United States. _Anywhere_ in the United States. I'll find my way home from there. And if you need money for all of the stuff you've done just give me your address and I'll pay you back when I get another job, okay?" The Doctor was silent as he guided her down the corridors. Bella tried to stop but he continued to propel her forward. "Where are you taking me?" She finally demanded.

"Infirmary," he informed her succinctly. "I've obviously waited too long between your treatments. I shouldn't have let you sleep in but as well as you did yesterday I thought you would be fine."

"Aw _hell no!_ " Bella twisted her upper body and managed to break free of the Doctor's grip on her upper arms. She then raced back towards the Console room.


	14. Chapter 14: The Bargain

The Doctor knew better than to chase Bella through the corridors of the Tardis; in her current mental state that would only upset her further. He instructed his ship to create a detour enabling him to get ahead of the girl and dashed down the corridor she created.

He ran to the end of the short hallway, castigating himself for leaving Bella to wake up alone. What had he been thinking? At the very least he should have installed a Neural Dampener in her room. That would have prevented any possibility of the dreams that he suspected of upsetting her.

The Doctor pressed himself flat against the wall at the end of the corridor as he heard Bella's footsteps racing toward him. When she came abreast of his hiding place he reached out with his left arm and hooked her around her waist.

Bella let out a small "oof!" of surprise when the Doctor grabbed her. Her legs pinwheeled in the air as he lifted her up and hugged her close to his body and her arms flailed uselessly as she desperately tried to escape.

As gently as he could the Doctor secured her flailing arms to her sides by wrapping his right arm around her firmly. He then moved his left hand up to rest against her temple. He debated on just putting her quickly to sleep but decided against it. Instead he decided to send soothing caresses to her mind in an attempt to calm her, similar to those a parent would send to a frightened child.

Bella gave out a surprised squeak the moment the Doctor's mind touched hers. The Doctor could feel her fear as he touched the walls surrounding her mind. He bumped against her gently in hopes that she would drop the barrier and allow him entrance. While her natural shields were weak enough for him to easily overpower his intent wasn't to display strength, it was to calm. She tried to shift her head to escape his touch but he kept his fingertips firmly attached to her temple.

"Let me go!" Bella cried as she continued to fight. The Doctor grunted in pain as she kicked backwards and connected with his shin. He took them down to the floor after a second blow to avoid further injury from the struggling girl.

The Doctor sat and rocked Bella, talking to her in soothing tones while he brushed against the walls of her mind. She stubbornly refused to allow him entrance so he nipped her ear to startle her. He took advantage of the distraction and surged inside when her shields dipped.

Bella's mind was a kaleidoscope. He could feel fear, grief, shock, anger, and a whirlwind of other emotions swirling around as she battled to push him out. He could sense that she was determined not to surrender so he decided upon another tactic. He stopped sending her soothing thoughts. Instead of shifting around and following her troubled essence he chose a single place in her mind and sat there, projecting nothing more than a wave of calm.

Bella couldn't battle a mind that would not fight; just as he expected she didn't even try. She withdrew a bit from him and hovered there in confusion. As her mind stilled her body calmed as well until she sat trembling in his arms.

Finally she looked up at him, shaken but with sanity in her eyes. "That's better, eh?" The Doctor said gently as he smiled down at her. "Now we can talk. Tell me what's wrong."

"I wanna go home," Bella said as tears filled her eyes. "Please, my dogs are going to die if I don't go feed them soon!"

"Did you dream about them?" The Doctor asked.

Bella nodded. "They're dying, while I'm out-" she turned her face to his chest and started crying softly.

The Doctor continued to rock her while he decided what to say next. "Tell you what, I'll make a deal with you. If you let me give you a checkup and your next treatment without a fuss, I'll take you to where your home would be located in this universe. I'll even take you to where your grandfather's house would be if you like. What do you say?"

Bella looked up at him in surprise. "You'll take me home?"

"I'll take you as close as I can get, which is the location of your home in this universe."

"Oh, thank you!" Bella squealed as she threw her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. The Doctor hugged her back but his eyes were sad as he held her.


	15. Chapter 15: Facing Reality

"You bit my ear!" Bella complained as the Doctor inserted the IV in her arm once they reached the Tardis Infirmary.

"You _kicked_ me. Twice. Think that makes us more than even."

"Yeah but why did you bite my ear?"

The Doctor sighed. "You weren't exactly seeing reason at that moment so I needed to touch your mind to calm you down. I nipped you as a distraction so I could slip through your walls without hurting you."

Bella was thoughtful for a moment. "How come you were able to go in my head like that? Only person I've ever seen who could do that was Gramps."

The Doctor gave her a pointed look while he waited for her to answer her own question. Bella needed to accept the truth about who she was and what had happened to her. While he sympathized with her situation he wasn't going to encourage her denial. She stared back at him for a few moments until her face wilted and she turned away.

"He wouldn't lie to me. Not about something like that." the girl insisted lowly, shaking her head against the pillow. "Anyone else in the family, yeah, they would lie. But not Gramps."

He decided to let the subject drop when he noticed her eyes beginning to once again fill with tears. She would be crying soon enough today without additional provocation. He turned to the ADT and began scanning her to check on her progress. According to the scan her ribs were almost completely healed as well as the hairline crack in her skull. Her arm had developed a problem, however. The initial knit to reconnect the Radius bone was complete but the broken edges of the Ulna, the more damaged of the two bones, had been pulled apart while he had fought to restrain her in the Tardis corridor. It needed to be re-positioned in order to heal properly.

The Doctor winced. This was not going to be pleasant. "We need to make a new rule," he firmly informed the girl laying on the bed. He waited until she turned to look at him. "No more panicking or fighting me _whatsoever_ until that arm heals. You've re-broken it."

Bella's eyes widened at the news. "What? But I thought you said it was healing!"

"It _was_ healing," The Doctor snapped. "Your thrashing about earlier disrupted the process." He took a deep breath and continued in a softer tone. "I'm sorry, but your bones are more delicate even than a human's right now. If I don't keep you quiet and still that arm will end up being permanently damaged. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Bella nodded sadly. "You're not taking me home today."

The Doctor forced himself to hide his annoyance. He knew that she wouldn't comprehend her situation until she saw the evidence for herself. While part of him wanted to lock her up on the Tardis until her arm healed, he knew that the quicker she understood the truth the faster she would adjust.

"I made you a promise and I intend to keep it. **BUT** -" the Doctor held up his hand when she opened her mouth to interrupt, "If I even _think_ that you are in danger of hurting that arm again I will knock you out and drag you straight back to the Tardis. That means you will do as you are told: no running, no arguing, and _definitely_ no fighting me. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

True to her word Bella allowed the Doctor to work without argument. As an added precaution against further re-injury, after re-setting the arm the Doctor placed it in a sturdy cast that ran from above her elbow to below her wrist; while he disliked taking the risk of having her joints freeze he wasn't in the mood to take further chances since his initial brace had proven ineffective at immobilizing the bone. If he was lucky the Artron in her system would fade to the point where he could safely speed along the bone rebuilding process within a couple of weeks but until then the Doctor decided to play it safe.

~~~###~~~

It was a dazed, dopey Bella that stepped out of the Tardis later that day. The Doctor had deliberately selected a pain medication with moderate sedative effects before re-positioning the dislodged bone in her arm. He wanted her aware but not so alert that she would have access to her full range of emotions when he proved to her that she was truly unable to return home.

The Doctor looked around the area where the Tardis had landed with curiosity. It was a small hollow nestled at the feet of several hills. A small creek marked the end of the gravel driveway and meandered behind the tattered mobile home that squatted nearby.

"That's not my house," Bella stared at the mobile home in confusion. "I have a house. It's small, but it's a house. Gramps, Dad, and Eric built it for my 18th birthday."

"Who's Eric?" the Doctor asked. _Had she someone special back home?_

"My half brother."

"Half brother? On which side?"

Bella blinked at him, obviously surprised. "My dad's, of course."

Noting her reaction, the Doctor realized that her failure to mention her mother was more than just an oversight. "Do you have any siblings on your mother's side of the family?" he asked.

"This place, the hills, the basic smells, it's exactly the same as home but _that's not my house_." Bella started walking towards the creek at the end of the driveway, ignoring the Doctor's question.

The Doctor grew alarmed when she started crossing the creek. "Bella, stop!" he ordered. "Where are you going?" He growled when the girl continued to ignore him, disappearing into the woods on the other side.

He caught up with her quickly; her drugged state prevented her from running. "You said I could see my grandfather's place!" she slurred in protest when he grabbed her left wrist and tugged her to a stop.

"Your grandfather's home is nearby?"

Bella pointed with the fingers of her casted arm. "Just up that-a-ways a bit."

The Doctor nodded and released her. The woozy girl followed the base of the hill without hesitation; she was obviously familiar with the terrain.

"There's supposed to be a driveway here," she told him softly. "A concrete bridge crossed the creek back there and the gravel road ran all the way up to the garage."

She pointed to a tiny wooded valley beside them. "That was the corn field; Gramps grew corn there for the chickens and the pigs he raised. Sometimes we grew even more behind the house but mainly we just raised our main garden back there."

A short walk later the pair came upon another small stream blocking their path. A partially collapsed house rested forlornly on the other side. Bella clamped her hand over her mouth as she choked back a sob.

"That's not his house! Gramps' house had two stories; he made it so he would have a bigger yard. How can that house not be his when everything else is the same?"

"I'm sorry." The Doctor knew that words would do nothing to ease the girl's pain. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to offer what comfort he could.


	16. Chapter 16: Desperate Measures

**A/N: Don't you hate when you start writing something expecting it to go one way and then the characters take over and do something** **completely** **unexpected?**

 **For the record, I could totally smack Ten for this latest stunt. He wasn't supposed to do THAT. He just totally demolished my plans for this story! Arrrgh!**

 **~~~###~~~**

Once they returned to the Tardis Bella claimed exhaustion and went directly to her room. Since then Bella had lain in her bed, mostly unresponsive. Her eyes would focus on the Doctor occasionally but most of the time she just slept or stared at the wall. She didn't speak a word even when he hooked her up to her daily IV treatment but her eyes were perpetually red-rimmed from crying silently.

Her metabolism had sped up as a result of the medical treatments he continued to give her; the excess flesh on her form gained from a lifetime of trying to locate needed nutrition was evaporating at an alarming rate. The Doctor added glucose to her drip in hopes of slowing down the ketosis.

As the days passed the Doctor grew more alarmed. Humans could literally will themselves to die. While he had never heard of a Gallifreyan having the ability to subvert their instinctive desire to live he was starting to wonder if Bella had enough human blood within her veins to achieve the feat. Not once in three days had she gotten up to use the restroom nor had she released her bladder where she lay. If something didn't change soon he would have to insert a catheter. He had deliberately not done this, hoping that the urge to urinate would drive her to leave the bed but so far it had not worked.

He knew that her lack of response was caused by grief; even the Tardis sensed it judging from the worried humming throughout the ship. Unfortunately for the Doctor, Gallifreyans had no need for depression medication and she wasn't human enough for earth-crafted antidepressants to help. He'd already tried those.

The Doctor couldn't lose her; she was the closest link he had to Gallifrey aside from his Tardis and he wasn't about to let that go. Some way, some how, he had to snap her out of this. He wrapped himself around her as she lay on the bed in hopes of a response; at the least he hoped that she would be upset when he undressed partially and crawled beneath the covers.

After a time he shifted her sleeping form so that she was nestled in his arms; he placed her head upon his shoulder and tweaked her nose in hopes of a response. "Bella?"

Nothing.

Becoming desperate, the Doctor placed his fingers upon her temple and dived inside her mind.

~~~###~~~

Bella's mindscape resembled nothing short of an abandoned town. All of the basic structures were in place but the gates were thrown open and nothing stirred within. All of the energy, all of the vibrancy that made her unique had vanished. The Doctor dived deeper into the recesses of her mind searching for the spark that was _Bella_.

When he stumbled upon the bonding node the Doctor wondered belatedly if she had been married in her home dimension; a broken bond was about the only thing that he could think of that would cause her reaction. Bella's bonding node had been dormant for some time; a broken link, possibly from her grandfather's death, was all the Doctor uncovered. He didn't even see a link for either of her parents, just that one lonely line long dead. Satisfied that this wasn't the source of her grief, the Doctor moved on.

He paused for a while in her library of memories in hopes of finding a clue. Her friends, her family, her home, and her pets dominated her recently viewed files and all had been painted over with a shade of sadness. He felt her terror at being completely alone; the only thing that had kept her functioning after her grandfather's death had been those tiny little connections to her world. She was scared and homesick and grieving over the loss of everyone and everything she had ever known. She had been told that her whole life was a lie in the new world she found herself trapped in and she wanted no part of it. The Doctor realized with horror that Bella was going home the only way she knew how, and she would succeed if the Doctor couldn't figure out how to stop her.

The Doctor raced to locate her essence. _What type of Time Lord was he?_ The last known living female Gallifreyan had been dropped into his lap and he'd been so wrapped up in himself that he'd forgotten the base tendencies of his own kind. It hadn't occurred to him that she would be so connected with her home that she would be willing to die in order to return. Most Gallifreyans, most Time Lords even, rarely ever traveled off their home planet. Only the most adventurous even considered it. The Doctor had only left to protect his granddaughter when his hand was forced; even then he would have stayed if his wife had still been alive. The Doctor realized that wasn't simply fighting homesickness, he was fighting _instinct._ Appalachian residents had a strong need to remain close to home; her Gallifreyan blood made that drive even stronger. How could he possibly fight that?

As he searched for her he considered his options. Time was running out; if he didn't find her soon her body would begin to fail. If he didn't pull her out quickly he might not be able to pull her out at all, and when he did pull her out he had to make sure to block the path so she wouldn't try again. The Doctor had no idea how he was going to manage that; he couldn't even find her to start! _Was she already gone?_

Forcing himself not to panic the Doctor started over on his search. He had missed something in his hunt for Bella, some tiny little hiding place and he was determined to find it. All the while he combed his thoughts for a way to tug her free from her need to go home.

When he came across her bonding node for the second time the thought flashed through the Doctor's mind about how bonds had been used in the past to pull grieving Gallifreyans back from madness when their mates had died. He remembered learning in history class about how his ancestors would force a claiming bond upon unwilling females; that bond was powerful enough to cause her to leave all of her familial connections behind. It had to be; back then the houses were constantly at war. Gallifrey would not have survived for very long if its women had tried to kill their mates in defense of their birth families.

The Doctor realized that a claiming bond would be powerful enough to force Bella out of her head; it would not only be strong enough to sever the link she had with her home, it would give her a connection to this universe – a connection to him that only death could sever.

 _But she's so young!_ The Doctor argued with himself. Physically she appeared to have achieved First Maturation but a part of the Doctor's mind rebelled. Human blood or no, she was essentially still a child in the Doctor's eyes.

The Doctor considered whether or not a family bond would serve his purpose. He had the capability of adopting her into his family whether she was willing or not. If he did that, however, he condemned the Time Lords to virtual extinction; close family members did not interbreed.

The Doctor was torn and time was running out. He knew of a way to save her and yet still he hesitated. Briefly his thoughts flitted to the Master; _what would he do_? The Doctor knew with certainty that, if it were the Master in his situation that the other Time Lord wouldn't hesitate regardless of the girl's age.

He would do whatever was necessary to not only save the girl but to preserve the Time Lords as well.

He initiated the bond.

~~~###~~~

Bella found herself lying in the warm summer rain. She felt so nice and warm, like she was wrapped up tightly in a slice of sunshine. For the first time in what seemed like forever her mind felt complete.

Bella was no longer alone.

She opened her eyes to discover that she was lying in the Doctor's arms. Bella realized his tears were what had made her think it was raining.

"Welcome back," he whispered.

Bella had a thousand questions roaring through her head. She vocalized the biggest one. "Did you get stuck inside my head?"

"Oh, yes!" the Doctor chuckled as he gently kissed her forehead.


	17. Chapter 17:Backfire

Bella had went to her room, wanting to be left alone so that she could have a good cry after realizing that she was well and truly trapped in another universe. When the Doctor followed her Bella decided to do what she always did when she wanted to be alone and folks ignored her wishes: she hid inside her head.

 _No way in hell can he follow me here_ , Bella thought smugly. She tuned out the external world, played her memories, and shed her tears. Bella had learned that she dealt with things best when she let herself feel the worst so she worked to flush it all out of her system in order to better focus on figuring out what the heck she had to do next.

Bella was fine, perfectly fine even if she had decided to take a break from life for a few days. She just wanted to be left alone long enough to throw herself a giant pity party before she returned to face her completely insane reality.

To Bella's great annoyance, the Doctor had other plans.

Bella had known the instant he started entering her mind. _Go away!_ She had wanted to scream. She had wanted to hit him with everything she had and give him a major headache for interrupting her while she was busy feeling sorry for herself but he had outsmarted her once (Biting? Really?) and she hadn't wanted to take any chances.

So Bella decided to play dirty. She crafted a mindscape based off her memories of Chernobyl photographs and threw open the gates before he managed to work his way inside. _That'll scare the pants off him,_ she thought maliciously. She then hid her essence inside a washing machine (since she had been busy trying to wash out all of her pain before the idiot interrupted her) and hunkered down to wait him out.

Bella had to hold back her chuckles as she sensed him searching for her. He was definitely determined. He passed by her hiding place a half dozen times during his search and Bella could sense that he was getting frantic.

It was beautiful. No one could find Bella if she didn't want to be found; her grandfather hadn't been able to teach her much about mental shielding but hiding? Bella was a Grand Master when it came to hiding. She knew how to pick the best spots in her mind and was patient enough to out-wait Time itself. She wasn't coming out until she was darned good-and-well ready, meddling space alien be damned.

Bella was more than a little confused when she found herself jerked back to awareness and discovered that she was wrapped in the arms of the before-mentioned space meddler who was now crying his eyes out as he lay half-naked in her bed.

 _Well that sure backfired,_ Bella thought. _She_ didn't know how he had managed to pull her out but she couldn't miss the fact that somehow he had gotten his mind stuck inside of hers during the process.

So now you know the rest of the story.

~~~###~~~

 **A/N: And this is why I'm so upset with Ten. I knew Bella was going to be perfectly fine, that she just wanted to be left alone to process things but did he listen? Noooo...he had to go freak out and do something stupid.**

 **So now I've got to figure out what those two are going to do next before I update again.**

 **REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Scarlet: OOH, I forgot about River Song. Cringes. I don't think those two are going to like each other. As for Bella and the Doctor falling in love, well...thanks to the Doctor going into panic mode they now have a bond and said bond will cause them to develop a natural affection – but as to whether it will be a romantic love, I honestly don't know. To be honest, I was so worried about the Master pulling a stunt like bonding that it never occurred to me that the Doctor would beat him to it so I have no idea what's going to happen next.**

 **Shewolf: I get the feeling that "over-protective" is about to go into overdrive. I don't think Bella is going to be happy when she realizes exactly what he's done so stuff is about to get real.**

 **Time-Twilight: I know you have reviewed but at the moment FF isn't letting me see them. I figured out how to change my settings so I should receive an email of your reviews from now on so that I can respond, so PLEASE don't think I'm ignoring you! From what I understand I should be able to see your reviews here shortly and when I do I will reply. :)**


	18. Chapter 18: Rage

Bella escaped the happy crying Time Lord and dashed for the bathroom. "Ooooh," she moaned as the pressure in her bladder eased. _I must have been gone longer than I thought._

She leaned her head against the wall and closed her eyes while she replayed recent events. _How did he manage to get stuck in my head?_ Bella had played mental hide-and-seek with Gramps her whole entire life and not once had he mentioned the possibility of someone getting stuck in there. _And how do I get him out?_

Bella turned inward and focused on finding the spot that had latched onto the Doctor while she continued to pee. She planned to remove the snag with extreme prejudice, freeing the Doctor and making sure that no one else would accidentally get stuck there in the future.

She tracked him down to a tiny house near the center of her mindscape. The building looked as if it had been abandoned for years until someone had recently moved in and began renovations. Bella could sense the contented buzzing of the Time Lord as made himself at home mowing the grass, repairing the foundations, and painting the walls of that forgotten building, and Bella realized with surprise that he hadn't gotten stuck by accident, _he had deliberately latched on to her mind!_

Furious, Bella moved to storm the house and rip him out by the short hairs. This was _her mind_ , dammit, and she didn't tolerate trespassers. She reached out to open the gate and was suddenly knocked several feet back from the building.

Bella sat up and gaped. A golden shield had appeared around that tiny little house that rested in the center of her mind. The Doctor's essence could be seen happily buzzing around on the other side, oblivious to the drama.

~~~###~~~

Bella was beyond pissed. Not only had the Doctor managed to tug her out of her head before she was ready, he had picked out a spot and moved in! He was _in_ _her mind_ , and she couldn't get close enough to kick him to the curb.

She sat and stewed as she encouraged her bladder to hurry up and finish. Geez, how long had she been out? Her body was acting like it hadn't seen a commode in over a week! Bella _knew_ she couldn't have been gone for more than a day; how much liquid had the Doctor pumped into her? Was this part of some sick revenge because she had decided to tune him out?

Bella was too angry by the time she finished to bother breathing a sigh of relief. No stupid space alien was going to make himself at home in _her_ head and get away with it. Bella hurried up, washed her hands, and went to confront the alien.

She found him stretched out on her bed still wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and boxers while he waited for her. His eyes glinted with darkness and for a moment Bella wavered. He knew she was angry thanks to that stupid link and he was ready for whatever she threw at him.

He wasn't even scared. She could feel a cool calmness emanating from the link he had created and Bella got the sinking feeling that whatever he had done, it was permanent.

The man was just too cocky.

A tiny voice inside of Bella raised its hand and suggested that Bella _really might just want to let this one go_ but she brushed it aside and stalked up to the lounging Time Lord.

"You did that deliberately," Bella growled.

"Yup," The Doctor replied calmly, popping the p.

"Get out."

"Can't."

"Can't or won't?" Bella felt a slight wave of amusement roll off of him combined with sadness.

"Can't, but for the record I wouldn't even if I could." The Doctor was too calm for Bella; it was making her nervous.

"What the hell did you do?" Bella shouted.

His facade broke and Bella sensed concern mixed with growing anger as he studied her. "You don't know. You honestly don't know what I've done, do you? Of course you don't, if you did you wouldn't have even bothered to try to pull me out, you would have known better!" The Doctor jumped up and started pacing the room, "Of all the things he didn't tell you, he had to leave out that one! He just _had_ to leave you ignorant about one of the _primary_ facets of your biology, didn't he?!"

Bella jumped as he grabbed the hairbrush off of the dresser and threw it violently across the room. "Of course he didn't tell you," the Doctor continued to rant. "He wanted you to think you were human! Let you believe that you were deformed and damaged because that's _so much better_ than the truth!"

The Doctor took a deep breath when he looked over and saw Bella's frightened expression. He ran his hands down his face, wiping off the rage and replacing it with a calm resolve. He walked over to Bella and took her face in his hands. "It's a claiming bond." He told her softly. "I married you."

 **~~~###~~~**

 **QUESTION:**

Should I raise the rating on this story a bit because of the language? I'm not sure how the ratings work here so I would really appreciate your advice. Thanks!

 **REVIEW REPLIES:**

 _TheDoctorsChild:_ I LOLed when I woke up to your comment this morning. So glad you are enjoying the story!

 _Time-Twilight:_ Yeah but I don't think she realizes just how long she had been gone before the Doctor intervened. There was a reason the Doctor was so frantic and Bella's so wrapped up in herself right now that she's not seeing it.


	19. Chapter 19: Tardis Knows Best

The Doctor was feeling pleased. Bella had done quite well in the weeks since he had initiated the claiming bond. She had accepted her circumstances and settled into life on the Tardis. Even though he had removed the cast from her arm, her bones were still a bit weaker than those of a human so he was careful to keep her away from any danger when he took her sightseeing. Part of him realized that he was being extremely overprotective of his young companion but the Doctor didn't care. She was the last female of his species, too young in the Doctor's eyes to even consummate their union, and he refused to take any chances with her safety.

Which was why, after making sure Bella was safely asleep earlier that evening the Doctor had slipped out for a little planet saving. He had noticed a problem while escorting his young bride through the bazaar earlier and had decided to investigate.

He dashed back into the Tardis with a gleam in his eye and a spring in his step. He hadn't felt so alive in weeks! As much as he enjoyed having Bella in his life the Doctor had missed the adrenaline rush that came from saving the day. He told himself that he was going to have to slip out more often as he instructed his time ship to take them into the Vortex.

When the Doctor flipped the dematerialization switch the Tardis groaned loudly, refusing to move. "Stop it!" the Time Lord scolded. He gave the console a sharp rap with his mallet and tried again.

The Tardis refused to budge.

"What's wrong with you, eh?" the Doctor ran a diagnostic to determine what was troubling his beloved ship. Nothing. She was just being stubborn.

"Oh, I know what this is about. You heard me tell Bella that we could stay here another day. You know I can't do that, not after I just overthrew their puppet regime. I'll bring her back later once things settle down." The Doctor threw the dematerialization switch again.

The Tardis didn't move.

"This is ridiculous!" the Time Lord scolded. "Bella is _not_ your pilot; she's not even a Time Lord yet! You do _not_ take orders from her, you take them from me and I say you need to _take us to the Vortex._ Now!"

The Tardis gave a low, sad moan. "I don't want to hear it!" the Time Lord snapped as he struck her console again. "Do as you're told!"

The Doctor fell to the floor with a cry as the Tardis finally obeyed. It felt as if a portion of his skull had been removed. He pulled himself up and madly started flipping controls. "Take us back!" he screamed. "Bella's still on the planet!"


	20. Chapter 20: Freedom

Bella worked hard to channel her inner Spock as she journeyed through the night. She had learned fairly quickly that the Time Lord could only sense emotion through the link he had created; the longer she could remain calm the more of a head start she would gain before he realized that she was up to something.

The stagecoach drivers gave a yell as they encouraged their draft animals (Bella hesitated to call them horses) to greater speeds on the winding roads leading from the capital city of the small forest planet. Bella sank back into the cushions, thankful that she had managed to catch the last coach out of town for the night.

Bella had waited weeks for this opportunity. The Doctor had watched her like an overpossessive hawk whenever he allowed her to venture out of the Tardis; as much as she was beginning to trust him the hovering got on her nerves. She felt like a concubine trapped in a harem, doomed to spend the rest of her days dancing for an alien sultan and she didn't like the thought of being owned one bit.

She actually liked having the Doctor in her head, however. It made her feel complete in a way she had never felt in her entire life; Bella felt so special when he would come check on her any time he sensed that she was upset or hurt. She worried that she might be in danger of actually falling in love with the Time Lord but if she ever did Bella knew that it would be a lie. She was completely dependent upon him in her current situation and she wasn't stupid enough to rule out the possibility of Stockholm Syndrome when it came to her emotions.

More important than her emotions Bella knew that the Time Lord was _wrong_. She was _human_ , regardless of how vehemently the Doctor insisted otherwise. She came from the Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, the daughter of a gambler and a teacher, and no one could change that, not even a lonely alien with a fantastic spaceship. She may not understand why he was so similar to her grandfather, may not be smart enough to eliminate all of the evidence but if there was one thing that Bella believed in it was her Gramps. _He would not lie to her_ , not about something as important as whether or not she carried the blood of a space alien in her veins. She was the last living member of the Two-Hearted Fugates and she would wear that badge with pride.

Bella would rather be an ugly little deformed duckling who accepted her heritage than a make-believe swan, and she would fight to keep her personal identity alive. She was reminded of the stories she had read of freshly captured slaves; they would be stripped of everything that they identified with in their old lives, even their name before being placed up for auction and shipped off to new owners.

 _Ain't gonna happen,_ Bella thought to herself, fighting to keep her emotions under control.

Bella wasn't sure what to do now that she had escaped. It had only been chance that she had picked up on the Time Lord's excitement while they were exploring the Bazaar earlier that day. She had seen the gleam in the Doctor's eye, sensed him quash his emotions and recognized the signs from her childhood. Her father had carried that exact same expression whenever he had plotted to leave her somewhere and go off gambling. Once she knew that he was planning to slip away from her Bella had pretended to fall to sleep soon after returning to the Tardis. He had been so focused on his plans that it hadn't even occurred to him that she was faking.

After that it simply been a matter of waiting until he left, packing quickly, selecting appropriate attire (she needed to blend in better with the more conservatively dressed natives), and slipping out the Tardis door. The Doctor had given her a bag of coins for spending money that day so Bella even had her finances covered; if she was conservative it should last her until she managed to secure employment.

Bella needed to get as far away from the Tardis as quickly as she could. Her grandfather had mentioned once that she was harder to track the farther she wandered and she was counting on that piece of information to help her escape. Her grandfather may not have been a space alien but she really hoped that the Doctor shared the same distance weakness as he. If Bella was right, he might not be able to trace her at all if he didn't notice she was gone until after he left the planet.

Bella allowed herself a small smile at that thought.

~~~###~~~

 **Time-Twilight: I hope this answers your question about what Bella thinks about being married to the Doctor. As for episodes, they will be coming in a bit; there are only a small handful of episodes left with Ten in their timeline so I have to make them count. :)**


	21. Chapter 21:Shattered

The Doctor raced out of the Tardis as soon as they returned to Dowdo IX in search of Bella. She couldn't have gotten far; she must have awakened while he had been out and decided to go looking for him. Why had he left her alone? Was a bit of adventure worth risking the loss of his bride?

And why oh _why_ hadn't he listened to his Tardis? She had tried to warn him that something was wrong but he had been feeling so triumphant from his latest adventure he hadn't bothered to pay attention.

He couldn't even _feel_ her! Claiming bonds weren't designed to last over time and long distances; they were simply a tool that ancient Time Lords had used to mark their women upon capture. While the effects were similar to a full bond they were only permanent after consummation. When the Tardis had ceased to be part of events on that planet it had shattered the Doctor's bond with Bella like so much broken glass. He hurt in a way he hadn't felt since the fall of Gallifrey and he knew that Bella was suffering as well.

 _It's all my fault,_ the Doctor thought mournfully. _If I hadn't been so determined to go adventuring tonight Bella would still be safe. She's alone and hurting because of me._

The Doctor came across a native Dowdian as he retraced his path in search of Bella. He stopped the native, asking him if he had seen anyone of Bella's description in the area in the last day or so.

"Sorry, I haven't seen anyone like that," the yellow-haired humanoid told him. "I'm only passing through to see what's left of the old Capital after the revolution in the month of Arturo."

What? That was _his_ revolution. "What's the date?" The Doctor demanded.

It was Nuhera. The Doctor was over a month late.


	22. Chapter 22: Bella's New Friend

It took two days for Bella to recover enough to leave her bed at the Pilgrim's Rest. She had been hurting so much from the severed bond that she barely remembered stopping there. The pain had started several hours into her stagecoach trip; the drivers had left her at the inn when she wouldn't stop crying from the pain because she had disturbed the other passengers.

Every fiber of her being screamed for her to go back and find the Doctor. Even though the pain had faded, there was a gigantic void where the Time Lord had been and the emptiness ached in a way that Bella could not explain. She wanted, _needed_ to find the Doctor, craved to be held in his arms. She knew that he could take the painful silence away. He alone could make it better. All she had to do was turn around and go back.

But if Bella went back to the Doctor she would lose her freedom, so instead she ran the other way.

To her dismay Bella found that she could no longer communicate with the Dowdians once her bond with the Doctor had shattered. She hadn't even realized that none of them were speaking English until suddenly they weren't. Bella cried herself to sleep after she discovered it, reaching out with her mind in hopes of finding the Doctor while she sobbed into her pillow. At that point if she had sensed him she would have ran back to his arms but all she found was silence.

~~~###~~~

After a week Bella managed to arrive in a city that contained a spaceport. Due to the constant influx of different species in the area no one thought much about Bella's lack of communication skills. She managed to secure a job cleaning the floors and tables at a local spaceport bar. It wasn't much but it kept her fed and allowed her to start learning words in the local languages.

One afternoon Bella found herself on hands and knees scrubbing the baseboards since business was slow. She carefully worked her way around the room, trying not to disturb the few patrons who were there. It had been almost three weeks since she had left the Doctor, yet Bella found herself still wishing that he would rescue her from the drudgery that had become her life. She missed being pampered by the Time Lord and sighed as she thought of what her rashness had cost her.

"Sel buort?" a man's voice asked.

Bella looked up to realize that she had been noticed by a man sitting at the bar. He looked like a human male in his 30's and had turned around on his stool to watch her curiously.

Bella shook her head. "I'm sorry, I don't speak Dowdian," she apologized in English.

The man's eyebrows practically launched into orbit. "You're speaking English. Twentieth century English, Appalachian region judging from the accent, which means you are a _really_ long way from home. How did you end up out here?"

Bella gasped. "Oh my God, you speak English? You really speak English? Do you know how to get back to Earth?" She dropped the scrub brush as she stood to approach the stranger. It seemed like forever since she had heard her native tongue and it called to her like a siren song.

Bella's boss came out of the back and yelled at her in the tone that said _get back to work_. To her surprise, the stranger came to her defense. He threw some coins at the man before he stood and took Bella's arm. "Come on, beautiful, let's go talk somewhere private."

The man led her to a restaurant a few streets over and ordered a meal for them both. Bella tried to protest, saying that she couldn't afford it but the man just laughed. "Humor me. It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of dining with a 20th century Earth girl and the last one wasn't near as breathtaking as the one before me now."

"I bet you say that to all the girls," Bella laughed.

"Only the pretty ones. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way, and who are you?"

"Bella Fugate."

He looked at her flirtatiously. "Hello, Bella Fugate. Your name definitely suits you. Now how did a 20th century lady such as yourself end up in the 36th?"

"36th?" Bella asked.

"Thirty-sixth century."

"Oh. How can you tell if I'm from the 20th century if this is the 36th?"

Jack laughed. "For one, they haven't used your particular version of English in centuries. Two, your unique dialect died out even before that, and three, I couldn't help but notice that you looked more than a bit lost and miserable back there. Care to answer my question now?"

Bella liked this stranger but she wasn't sure exactly how much he would believe. Her story sounded insane even to herself, after all. "I'm not sure if you would believe me," she confessed nervously.

Jack reached across the table and covered her hand with his. "Try me."

Bella looked him in the eyes and saw curiosity and concern within. After a few moments she finally decided to tell him an abbreviated version. "I was kidnapped by a space alien. I finally got away and managed to get a job here while I figure out how to get home."

"And did said alien travel in time?" Jack asked.

"What makes you ask that?"

"Rather easy guess, considering where you're at. He didn't happen to be a Time Agent, did he?"

Bella looked at him quizzically. "What's a Time Agent?"

Jack sighed. "A way we could have gotten off this rock."

The two talked as they ate, Jack asking her for specifics about her culture and language while offering her survival tips for her current location. "You know, I've always wanted to visit 20th Century Appalachia. I hear that they have some really great moonshine!" Jack confessed during a lull in the conversation.

Bella perked up. "You've never had moonshine?"

"Not a single drop. Have you?"

She leaned forward and whispered. "I used to help my uncle make it."

 _That_ got Jack's attention. "Are you telling me that you know how to make old-fashioned 20th Century Hillbilly moonshine?"

Bella grinned.

"Sweetheart, if you know how to make moonshine, I know how to make us rich."

"Prove it," Bella dared him.

"Okay, but first I have to get us a ride off this planet."


	23. The Search For Bella

The Doctor considered himself lucky. He had lost Bella on a planet of scruffy blonde humanoids so her long black hair stood out among the natives. He had been tracking her nonstop for two weeks since the Tardis deposited him on Dowdo IX a month after he had forced the time ship to take off, not realizing that his young bride had been left behind. He was tired, he was scruffy, and he really needed a shower by that point but there was something he needed more.

He needed to find Bella.

The Doctor blamed himself for Bella's current situation. He knew that she must be terrified, lost on an alien planet without the ability to communicate. He had left Bella vulnerable and now she was in danger. Bella was naive. She didn't know the perils that were out there just waiting to gobble up innocent girls like her and she lacked even the most basic survival skills needed for that time period.

Even worse, she was rare. The last female of a species thought to be extinct; if she were discovered by the wrong person she would be sold to the highest bidder and shipped off to someone's private collection.

The Doctor had to find her fast.

Fortunately people tended to remember the girl. Her dark hair and sad eyes had captivated an artist who had sketched her on a train and displayed the portrait at an art gallery in the capitol. A worker on the train remembered helping her buy tickets as she headed closer to the equator. A restaurant worker remembered exchanging food for work from a girl who could not speak the local language. A pawn shop owner remembered buying a strange necklace from a dark-haired mute.

The Doctor repurchased Bella's medical alert badge and continued searching.

He found out that she had been caught sleeping beneath a bridge and was chased away by authorities. She had helped a child rescue his pet from a tree. She had pulled a guy out of the river after he had stumbled while proposing to his girlfriend and that guy had helped her find work at a local bar. His girlfriend had allowed her to sleep on the floor until Bella received her first paycheck and could rent a room of her own.

For the first time since his search began the Doctor allowed himself to feel hope. Against all odds Bella had survived and found employment on a world where she couldn't even speak the native tongue. He imagined how happy she would be when he walked into that bar. The Tardis was parked close so they wouldn't have to carry the belongings she had acquired very far. He would calm her down, treat any injuries, and re-establish the claiming bond.

After that the Doctor planned to sleep for days wrapped around his recovered bride.

It was midday when the Doctor arrived. The place was decrepit; a few musty patrons were scattered about drinking their preferred beverages in silence. The Doctor resisted the urge to cringe at the thought of his Bella working there. It didn't matter; she would be home soon.

The Time Lord slapped his hand down on the bar to gain the attention of the barkeep dozing in the corner. "What would you like?" the worker mumbled sleepily.

"Hello! I'm searching for one of your employees. Humanoid female, about so high" he demonstrated her height on his chest, "with long black hair and green eyes. She wouldn't be able to speak the language here so she's probably doing menial tasks. Do you know her?"

The barkeep gave the Doctor an appraising look. "What's it to you?" he demanded. "For all I know you're an agent trying to collect on a bill. Go away, none of us got any money around here."

The Doctor pulled a large coin out of his pocket. "That could change with the right information." He noted with satisfaction that the barkeep's eyes snapped to the coin in his hand and the Time Lord could see the wheels turning in his sluggish brain.

"I've seen her," the man said after a long pause. "Tiny thing, real sad, speaks a strange tongue nobody knows, am I right?"

The Doctor jerked the coin out of reach as the man reached out to grab it. "Tell me where she is and it's yours."

"What do you want with her anyway? She don't hurt anybody; she can't even talk right. All she does is work."

"She's my wife. We got separated and I managed to track her here."

The barkeep's eyes widened. Married females were considered precious on Dowdo IX. "I'm sorry, I didn't know she was a wife. I thought she was just a drifter."

"That's fine, I understand. She couldn't even communicate her status to you at any rate. Just tell me where she is so I can retrieve her."

"Umm, she's gone."

" _What?_ "

"Dark-haired human came in here a few weeks ago who spoke her language. I couldn't understand what they were saying but your wife seemed excited. When I yelled at her to get back to work he paid his tab and they left. Haven't seen her since."

"Any word, any idea where they would have went?" The Doctor asked desperately. "Had you seen the human before? Do you remember his name? Anything, anything at all will help."

The Doctor tossed the barkeep the coin and stalked out when he shook his head sadly.


	24. Jackpot

Picking up the little lost girl had been one of the best decisions Jack had made lately. She couldn't speak a word of anything other than 20th century English but that suited him just fine. It made keeping secrets from her easier.

He had been struggling for a bit since he left the Time Agency; one of their termination agents had managed to track him down and steal his Vortex Manipulator leaving him stuck in a ratty little spaceport on a dinky little planet. He knew their goal was to render him harmless but they underestimated Jack's ability to bounce back from almost anything. Now they had not only stolen his memories they had taken his Vortex Manipulator as well.

Jack was out for blood.

He had conned and slept and gambled his way into a small stake and had been looking for a way off that woodsy rock when he saw her scrubbing the floor with tears in her eyes. The little thing was half-starved and obviously miserable. Jack decided that it would be nice to hear about someone else's problems for a change so he asked her what was bothering her.

To his utter shock, she had replied in ancient English. Come to find out, that little girl was an authentic 20th Century Kentucky hillbilly, complete with an ambiguous moral code and a long-lost moonshine recipe just waiting to be exploited. Moonshine was one of the few alcoholic drinks said to rival hypervodka but the skills to make it had been lost due to over-zealous law enforcement on 21st Century Earth.

Jack was going to be rich.

He lied to the girl and told her that it would take a fortune to return her to Earth, even more if she wanted to return to her proper time. He then reassured her that he knew of a way that they could make all of the money they needed in exchange for 50% of the profit. Once they earned enough he would return her to her proper time on Earth in exchange for the rights to their moonshine business.

Bella agreed so fast it almost made him feel guilty.


	25. A Birthday for Bella

_Bella was standing there in the crowd with her back facing him. The Doctor had searched nonstop for months and he had finally managed to find his wife. He placed his hand upon her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. She turned around, revealing her beautiful-_

Jack?

" _Hey old man," the former con-man laughed, "don't forget to set your clocks for Volcano Day!"_

~#~

Bang! The Doctor knocked his head on the grating as he woke abruptly from the dream. He was used to dreaming about Bella but Jack? He never dreamed about Jack. He rubbed his head to clear it and went back to work.

Repair completed, the Time Lord started putting the latest set of coordinates into the Tardis console that he had uncovered during his search for Bella. The pair were using fake identities so they were getting harder and harder to track. Fortunately for the Doctor their latest stunt had involved the theft of a fully-functional Chula warship from the Seivad heiress. The woman had placed a bounty on the man who had taken his wife that was being broadcast far and wide. If the Doctor didn't find Bella soon he would probably end up having to break her out of prison at the rate they were going.

Chula warship. Hmmm. That was probably why he had dreamed about Jack.

~~~###~~~

" _Happy birthday Billie Bella, happy birthday to you!"_ Jack's voice reverberated against the walls of their new ship as Bella sat cross-legged in one of the bunks wiping sleep from her eyes. She had expected Jack to be off sexing for the whole night but he had surprised her.

She blinked in the glow of the flaming birthday cake he held aloft. "Oh my god did you actually manage to stick all 50 candles on that thing? I'm surprised it's not activating the fire suppression system in here!"

"I had to turn it off, for your information," Jack responded primly as he sat the cake in front of her. "Now, make a wish so I can turn it back on."

Bella closed her eyes and thought. She couldn't believe that it had been almost two years since her and Jack had met in that dingy bar. Since then they had traveled all over the Universe. Due to her lack of communication skills (even with Jack's best efforts to teach her she sucked at languages) Bella was generally stuck playing eye candy but occasionally she had a more active role. She was still proud of how she had recently helped Jack cheat his way through a two-day long card game to win the freedom of a shipload of slaves. For that scam Jack had dressed her up in an embarrassingly skimpy outfit and instructed her to wander about the room pretending to be bored while he played. At certain intervals she would give him a hug or accept some affection from him and use the physical contact to send Jack the images of the cards that the other players held in their hands.

Jack had taken the money won from that game (the slaves were just part of the pot) and used it to buy them their very own spaceship. Bella still couldn't believe that he had bought it so cheap but he had shown her the receipt to prove it.

"Oh, wish for it already. You know you want to." Jack's voice broke through her reverie.

Bella's mouth flew open, insulted. "How do you know what I want to wish for?"

"Because you haven't stopped talking about him for two years."

"Oh, shut up." Bella grumped and made her wish.

Once she blew out the candles Jack scooted the cake to the side and plopped down on the bunk beside her. "Close your eyes and hold out your hands for a really _big_ surprise" he instructed with a grin.

"Oh, please tell me you're not going to stick your penis in my hand again!" Bella groaned as she obeyed.

"Fat chance! I learned my lesson after the last time."

"Thank God for small favors."

"Hey! I am NOT small!"

Bella fell back against the wall of her bunk roaring with laughter until Jack slapped her in the face with a large envelope. "Here's your first present, Hillbilly. Hurry up and open it."

Bella sat back up and took the envelope from Jack's hands. He seemed excited but she sensed a bit of nervousness in him as well. Whatever he had gotten her, Bella could tell he was unsure of her reaction. _Knowing him it's a coupon for a brothel s_ he thought with a sigh as she opened it.

Bella puzzled over the papers she found inside the envelope Jack had given her. It looked like some sort of medical form but Bella couldn't understand a word of it.

Jack pulled a sheet from the bottom of the small stack in her hands. "Here. I translated the summary for you already" he explained as he placed that piece on top for her to read.

"What is this? It looks like a DNA report. Who's it for?" Bella asked.

"It's for you." At Bella's blank look he continued. "Billie Bella, you're not developing like a normal human. You're fifty years old, for Goddess' sake but you look half your age! Less than half, to be honest. It's not _normal_ , honey. I know what your grandfather said but I still wanted to check because I was worried. I mean, what if he had been wrong? What if you _did_ have some nonhuman blood in you? You could be susceptible to all sorts of illnesses and not even know it. I didn't want to take that chance."

"Besides," the conman continued "it is _not_ normal for a fifty year old human to still be a virgin, regardless of the century she was born in unless you're _completely_ asexual, which you're obviously not. You talk about your Doctor _waay_ too much for that to be the case."

Bella let loose with a resounding slap. "I do NOT talk about him! I haven't mentioned him in ages-you're the one who keeps bringing him up!"

"Yes you do." Jack countered.

"Oh yeah? When do I talk about him then, since you're such the expert?" Bella snapped.

"In your sleep. You call out his name almost every single night."

Bella didn't have a response for that.

"Annd," Jack continued with a long-suffering sigh, "I haven't managed to arouse you even the tiniest bit for _two years._ I was worried that I was losing my touch!"

Bella rolled her eyes. Of course he would want to soothe his wounded libido. She examined the paper quizzically. "Okay. I see it says human right here; I'm obviously human so are you happy now?"

Jack snatched the paper from her hands. "For such a smart woman you can be incredibly dumb at times." He started explaining the results to her. "Here's where it says you've got human in you. If you'll notice these numbers the geneticist discovered that only 25% of your DNA structure is human."

"What? There's no fu-"

"Just shut up a minute! The rest of your DNA was _really_ hard to trace according to the agency. Apparently you're a member of an extinct species and it took them ages to figure out which one. That's why we had to leave Llentrah so fast. They were climbing all over themselves trying to persuade me to introduce you to them and I was afraid they would try to kidnap you or something. You're worth a fortune on the exotic species' market."

Jack pulled the sheaf of papers out of her lap and replaced them with a wrapped package. "Which leads us to your second present."

Bella hesitated before pulling on the ribbon wrapped around the gaily-covered package, afraid of what she might find within after Jack's last gift.

"They're books." Bella exclaimed in confusion as she examined the volumes. They were exquisitely bound hardcovers in two completely different languages. To her delight, one of them was actually in English. "The Legend of the Time Lords, written and translated by Professor River Song" she read out loud. "I don't understand. This is the Doctor's species. Jack?"

"Seventy-five percent of your DNA matched up with the extinct species called Time Lords. I talked Professor River Song into translating her book into English for you. She's the foremost expert on the legends surrounding them. Oddly enough, she also knows how to speak 21st Century English so she was able to translate it as well. Traded her a supply of her favorite lipstick in exchange for the translation. Man, that stuff was expensive!"

Jack pointed to the book written in Basic. "This is one of the original copies of her book. I got you a copy of both translations in hopes that it might help you figure out how to read. Not going to hold my breath at this point, but a guy can still hope."

"Hey!" Bella protested. "It's not like I don't try, it just doesn't make any sense to me!"

Jack chuckled. "I know but...two years and you're not even up to the level of a toddler. We need to work just a _little bit_ harder, okay? That way if something happens to me you'll be better able to manage on your own."

"Nothing's going to happen to you Jack!" Bella protested. "I won't let it."

Jack grabbed Bella by the face, pulled her in for a resounding kiss on the cheek, then wrapped her up in a giant bear hug.

 **~~~###~~~**

 **REVIEW RESPONSES**

 _Scarlet:_ I honestly think the age problem is more in the Doctor's head than in reality. Due to her human background she ages faster than a full Gallifreyan but slower than a full human. She's 48 (50 now) but looks like she's in her late teens/early twenties and her mental maturity falls along the same lines. She acts younger than a human but older than a Gallifreyan at her age. So basically it's more of the Doctor getting over his hangup than it is a matter of physical maturity. As a result I'm not sure exactly when or if they will ever become physical.

 _Shewolf_ : As for the Doctor being over-possessive should he track Bella down, I think you've nailed it but I'm not exactly how much more over-possessive he can get at this point. I am wondering about his reaction should he see Jack with Bella. I mean, the Doctor considers Bella to be his wife and we all know Jack's favorite pastime….

 _Falling Right Side-Up:_ Sorry about the shortness of the chapters. I actually write nonfiction for a living (you can search for my username to find them) so I tend to think in scenes and chunks. I have to wait until every scene is fully formed before I put it in writing. The only exception to that was the scene where Ten panicked and bonded with Bella. I saw her throwing her pity party and gradually recovering, went to write it, then Ten decided to go rogue (which was why I was so annoyed).

This is actually the longest piece of fiction I have ever managed to write. One of my personal goals is to write novels; I've got tons of stories in my head but they end up either being really short short-stories or not written at all. I figured that playing in the Doctor's sandbox (since it is the only show I watch regularly) might make the learning curve easier. I expected to spit out a few chapters and have it fizzle like all of my other attempts but this one has surprised me, along with all of the attention it has gotten.

Basically, Please forgive my mistakes and short chapters. I'm just learning and this story has kinda taken a life of it's own.

 _Time-Twilight:_ Thank you for all of your reviews and encouragement. It means more to me than you will ever know.


	26. Dreams and Discoveries

" _I'm telling you take this thing back!"_

The Doctor jolted awake as the Tardis started beeping. _Blimey, now I'm dreaming of Donna Noble. What's next?_ He wondered as he sat up on the jump seat and rubbed his eyes.

The Time Lord suspected that sleep deprivation was at the root of his strange dreams; in the three months since he had lost Bella the only sleep he had gotten was when he nodded off in exhaustion. He refused to rest until his wife was safely back aboard the Tardis.

Bella was defenseless; completely at the mercy of the man who had taken her away from Dowdo IX. She would be forced to submit to whatever he wanted just to survive and the thought of what she might be suffering horrified the Doctor.

 _What had she been thinking?_ The Doctor wondered. _Why did she go so far from the Tardis? It was almost like she was running. Bella might not have been thinking clearly_ , the Doctor realized. With the link broken she may have even thought he was dead. Broken bonds could make even the most capable Time Lord a bit insane and his bride was completely new to the experience.

 _It doesn't matter,_ the Doctor decided. Whatever her reasons for not waiting for him to return it was his fault that he had lost her in the first place. If he had only listened to the Tardis he wouldn't have forced the ship to dematerialize nor would he have returned to the planet over a month late. The sooner she was back with him the sooner he could start picking up the pieces. He just wanted her home.

The Doctor shook himself fully awake as the beeping continued. The Tardis had picked up an alert issued by a genetics agency in the Llentrah system. They were searching for a Dean Van Dint and an unidentified female for questioning related to a possible violation of the Endangered Species Act and were offering a reward for their safe capture. A heavily pixellated image was attached to the alert of the man opening a door for a petite dark-haired female.

The Doctor's hearts stopped when he looked closely at the image. His wife was being escorted by a young Captain Jack.

~~~###~~~

REVIEW RESPONSES:

 **Falling Right Side-Up:** You are very welcome! Feel free to ask anything, I am happy to answer. As for _The Empty Child,_ I have no idea why Ten wouldn't remember meeting her as Nine if he actually did. Rose would throw a fit, don'cha think?

 **time-twilight:** By the time of thischapter, Bella has been away a bit over 2 years but for the Doctor it has only been about three months. Remember, the Tardis landed a month late. Bella was off of the planet before the Doctor even began looking for her. Both the Doctor and Jack are time travelers and the Doctor is grasping at every straw he can find, regardless of their correlation to the causal nexus at this point. He just wants Bella back.


	27. Hunted

Jack curled himself around Bella's trembling form as they hid inside a culvert. She was cold and wet but there wasn't a thing that Jack could do about it.

He was more worried about getting them out alive.

Thanks to the con-man's curiosity about Bella's bloodline word had spread that there was a Time Lord still in existence. Collectors from across the Universe were now trying to capture Bella; Jack was the only thing standing between her and a lifetime of imprisonment in some rich man's zoo.

Jack suspected that this was why Bella's mysterious Doctor had kept her on such a short leash. He had known that she was defenseless and had been trying to keep her safe. _I'm sure that biology played a part in it too,_ Jack thought wryly. He had read the book on Time Lords that he had given Bella for her birthday and researched a variety of telepathic species to fill in the gaps left by Professor Song. He suspected that the Time Lord had bonded with the little Hillbilly before she managed to escape. Bonded mates of any species were extremely devoted and protective but unfortunately for the Time Lord Bella hadn't realized who she was or what was happening so she had fought her biological urges and ran. She had only recently begun to accept the fact that she wasn't human and Jack had had to bully her into that _._

 _She must have been scared stupid when she realized the Time Lord had bonded with her,_ Jack thought. _Hell, I bet her mate is half-crazy right now from missing her._ Considering how attached to the man Bella remained over two years later Jack suspected that the Time Lord was tearing the Universe apart looking for Bella if he was still alive.

Jack wasn't so sure about the alive part. Something had managed to break their bond, after all.

He tightened his grip on the girl as he heard the Collectors move closer. Water was rushing around them at a rapid rate but Jack still feared that they would be overheard by the hunters. He tucked Bella's head under his chin and waited. He would kill the girl himself before he let them take her.


	28. Can I Kill Him?

The Doctor wondered just how much damage would be caused to Time if he killed Jack Harkness before the man became immortal. The stupid idiot had started asking questions he'd no business asking and now Bella was in danger. She was being chased across the Universe by collectors, bounty hunters, and Time War survivors alike.

The only thing that prevented the Time Lord from trying to eliminate the walking fixed point was the fact that Jack was apparently doing his damnedest to protect her. The Doctor was puzzled by that; this was obviously Jack in the days before the Time Lord had first encountered him. Harkness had been a callous, mercenary con-man back in those days so why hadn't he just sold Bella? He could make a fortune off of her.

Maybe that's why Jack had been alone all of those years ago when his previous incarnation had met the former Time Agent. He could have sold Bella to the highest bidder and moved on.

" _For your sake Jack Harkness I hope not,"_ the Doctor growled as he angrily punched in the latest set of coordinates to continue the chase.

 **~~~###~~~**

 **A/N:** BWAHahaha! Methinks the Time Lord is a little bit grumpy!


	29. Bright Idea

**Merry Christmas everyone! Here's a little something to read while you are pigging out today. I was going to wait until I had more than a tiny piece before posting again but I'm not sure when my next update will be; I've finally worked out some basic plot points and need to stitch them together in a way that makes sense. I wanted to give you a little taste in the meantime to hold you until my next update. Have a great day!**

 **~~~###~~~**

" _Hey Bella, wake up!"_

"Can't it wait?" Bella groused, trying to snuggle back into the warmth that was Jack's chest. She was finally warm after spending hours wading through rivers and streams to get back to their ship so she was not in the mood for Jack's latest harebrained scheme.

He nudged her more forcefully. "Seriously, wake up. I know how to fix this. I know how to get the Collectors off your trail!"

"Huh?" She raised up on one elbow to look at the con-man with a bleary eye. "How?"

"With the perfect self-cleaning con. We'll not only be able to make some money, everyone will think that you're dead. Problem solved!" Jack jumped out of their bunk, vibrating with the force of his idea.

"How in Heaven's name can we can pull _that_ off?"

"Well first we need to take a little vacation."


	30. Advert

**_Okay, I lied. I managed to get this part done earlier than I thought. Enjoy!_**

 **~~~###~~~**

 _The Doctor is walking around with Donna exploring the wonders of Ancient Rome. Ahead of him he sees a woman's scarf slip from her shoulders and land on the ground. He picks it up and touches the woman's shoulder to get her attention._

" _Excuse me, Miss? I think you dropped this."_

 _She turns around to look at him. It is Bella._

~#~

The Doctor jerks awake to discover that he is standing at the Console with his hands on the controls. _Blimey, now I'm falling asleep while standing up!_ Scratching the stubble on his face he wonders what woke him when he realizes that the Tardis is beeping. The light on his comm is flashing so he flips the switch.

It is an advert.

 _Collectors rejoice! For the first time in history our organization has managed to recover a living Time Lord. The specimen is a young intact female in good health and perfect for breeding._

A hologram appears showing Bella pacing a small cell along with a stream of technical data about her status.

 _Due to the rarity of our offering we have decided to list her at auction. Bidding will start at one million. Payment must be in non-traceable currency. Half is due immediately at the conclusion of the auction with the balance payable when the specimen is transferred to your custody._

 _Interested parties must show proof of their ability to pay prior to bidding._

 _END OF MESSAGE._

 _~#~_

"No, no no no no no!" The Doctor howls as the message concludes. The advert was obviously intended for regular patrons of the exotic species trade as there is no contact information included with the communique.

He madly starts flipping switches, trying to trace the signal back to its origin.

~~~###~~~

Jack sighed for the fifteenth time that hour. Bella just wasn't getting it. "You need to look more scared, Billie!"

"I'm trying!" Bella plopped down on the small cot in the nondescript room they were renting.

"Well you need to try a bit harder. Now, take it from the top."

Bella got back up and once again started pacing the room while Jack recorded her from atop a ladder he had placed in the corner.

"That's it, swipe your hair away from your face; make it look like you're trying to figure out how to escape."

"Can you take these cuffs off now? They're rubbing me raw!"

"It will add to the effect. Struggle with them a bit, make it real! You've just been captured! You're angry and you're scared and you don't know what he's going to do to you. He might be coming to rape you again as we speak!"

"How am I supposed to try to escape when you've given me such a case of bedhead that I can barely see?"

"Because you're supposed to be _terrified,_ stupid! Scared people don't think, they just act. Now hustle!"

Bella put on her scared face and tried again.

~~~###~~~

The Doctor threw his coat towards one of the coral struts as he raced back into the Tardis and madly started flipping switches on the console. He had encountered a dead end when he tried to trace the advert back to the signal's origin. It had been bounced off too many anonymous beacons for him to trace so he had posed as a nouveau-rich mine owner who wanted to start Collecting in hopes of infiltrating the market and had finally gotten a lead. The owner of a nightclub on Nothguort II occasionally traded in exotics and expressed interest in helping him get started for a price.

Within moments the Tardis had landed a few streets over. He scooped up his coat from where it had landed on the floor, took a deep breath, and merged with the nightlife.

~#~

"You are aware that trading in exotic species is highly illegal," the heavily-tattooed lime-colored creature said as they sipped their drinks from a corner booth.

"When is anything fun ever legal?" The Doctor replied. "I can buy anything I want now that my Muihtil mine has struck such a big seam. Women are fawning all over me trying to get my attention but I want a _challenge_! I want a trophy like none other; a female so rare that the Universe will drool when they see her walking on my arm."

The nightclub owner's laugh sounded like the gurgling of a clogged drain. "Big dreams for such an upstart! I don't think you understand the value of what you seek. Exotics aren't supposed to be for personal use, they're _collectibles._ Most aren't even domesticated; they spend their lives in captivity being traded from one Collection to another. Use them and you spoil their value."

The Doctor's smile didn't reach his eyes. "Oh, you and I both know that's not the case. Females are _designed_ for pleasure; treat them with care and they will last for a long time. Besides, I'm looking for a female with an extremely long life span – she might even outlive me if she's lucky. Now, I've heard that a female is being sold at auction that is absolutely _perfect_ for my needs; all I want is an introduction."

The alien wiped his snot off the table after a snort. "Where did you hear about that?"

"Doesn't matter. I want her and that's what counts." The Doctor removed a small pouch from his coat and pushed it towards the other man. "This should be sufficient for _your_ needs."

The man casually opened the bag and looked inside. "There's a quarter million in Sivad diamonds in here. You must want her bad to pay so much for a simple introduction."

"You have no idea."


	31. Bait and Switch

Joanna Markus had tapped the end of her perfectly manicured fingernail along the edge of the table one hundred fifty-eight times since the Doctor had entered her office. Either she was nervous or it was simply habit but the Time Lord found it annoying. He was too tired to be tolerant of random tics but still he kept quiet; this woman was the last hurdle standing between him and Bella's auction and he wasn't willing to take any chances.

"So Mr. Caligari, I understand that you own a Muihtil mine in the Tecocrep System, am I correct?"

The Doctor pulled a stack of forged papers out of his jacket pocket and handed them to the woman. "Yes. My mine is currently valued at one billion, twenty-five thousand and the business owning the mine has a cash surplus of point five billion."

Joanna accepted the papers from the Doctor's hand and examined them. "You're quite the successful entrepreneur, Mr. Caligari. I can see here that you are definitely a risk taker. I've never heard of Muihtil being found that far out from the galactic core."

"Yeah, well, once you know what to look for you can find anything."

The woman smiled. "That is so very true. So tell me, just why are you interested in bidding at our little auction? I would think someone as successful as yourself wouldn't need to purchase a pet."

The Doctor forced himself to remain nonchalant. "Let's just say that I have an eye for the unusual. You have to admit, the female's quite rare."

"True, but you're not so common yourself." At the Doctor's puzzled look she continued. "Oh, come now, _Time Lord_ , didn't you think we'd notice you trying to track down your mate? Of course, the species scanner that you walked past as you sat down in my office helped to confirm our suspicions. Thank you for that."

"What?" The Doctor jumped out of the chair as several guards entered the office area armed with sedative weapons.

The woman stood up and walked around her desk. "Don't be afraid, we're here to help you. I'm Joanna Markus, head geneticist of Llentrah Labs. You and your mate are now under the official protection of the Critically Endangered Species Act."

"What?"

"You didn't actually think that we would allow the last living female Time Lord to spend the rest of her life in some Collection, did you? She is needed to help restore your species. So just relax. Our carefully selected team of medical experts are going to make sure that you are in good health before we take you to your mate."

"What? You have Bella? Where is she?"

The woman smiled. "All in good time. You and your mate are safe now, free of any chance that you two will be separated again. You must have missed her so! I'm sure she missed you as well. Such a lovely little female; you two are going to make some beautiful babies. I can hardly wait to hold them."

Joann motioned to the guards. "Take him."


	32. Falling to Ashes

Jack awoke to thunder and screaming. _The volcano!_ It was erupting. _But how?_ It wasn't scheduled to erupt for hours yet but then Jack took in his surroundings and realized that it was right on schedule.

"Bella?" Jack called out. He had been taking her for one last walk through Pompeii before he stuck her into hiding. Bella had been upset; she thought that she had seen the Doctor, that he had actually spoken to her but that the man hadn't recognized Bella before he ran off.

"Bella!?" He twisted around, scanning the mass of fleeing bodies. Jack remembered pulling Bella into a mostly-empty alleyway and wrapping her in a hug to calm her down. The last thing he needed was for her to draw attention to them at that point; Jack had already placed a stolen corpse in the rented room awaiting the end of the auction and the subsequent volcano eruption. He didn't want anyone to even remotely suspect that Bella wasn't the one in that room.

" _BELLA!"_

Jack tried to see through the waves of ashes falling around him as he worked to remember what else had happened. He recalled feeling a slight prick on his back as he had soothed his little Hillbilly, remembered Bella's cry of confusion as he started falling, then finally witnessing her collapse into sleep beside him.

"Oh God!" Bella was gone. Bella was gone and somebody had taken her.


	33. Sleeping Bella

**A/N: Okay, after I post this I've got to get back to work on my regular book. If I get enough done on it today (cross your fingers or search for my site to come help) I will start back on this story.**

~~~###~~~

It wasn't often that the Doctor could claim to be a willing captive; while he had been a prisoner many times in his long life not once had he actually looked forward to it.

These people had Bella; regardless of their intentions they were taking him to his wife and that was all the Doctor cared about. He would worry about escaping later once Bella was safe in his custody.

The Doctor found himself trying to make the medical team hurry up. They were impossibly slow with their exams. While he was thankful that they were being so cautious (they explained that they didn't want to take the chance of exposing Bella to any contaminants), he wanted to see his wife as soon as possible.

They finished their work then ordered him to bathe and change into a simple set of gray scrubs before they would consent to taking him to Bella. The Doctor had washed and changed in record time. He didn't even think about trying to secrete his sonic into his new clothes; he was too distracted after catching Bella's scent in the ventilation system.

A part of him wondered what had happened to Jack. Had he sold Bella to these people? Had they managed to intercept him when he discovered Jack's advert or had the advert the Time Lord picked up simply been a ruse to flush him out of hiding?

The Doctor had many more questions than answers but he shoved them all aside for the most important part: _They were taking him to Bella._

~#~

Eventually the Doctor found himself deposited in a spacious, multi-roomed cell that resembled nothing short of a lavish hotel room. A table and two chairs sat in one corner, a bookshelf filled with 21st Century English titles was placed in another and had been flanked with two oversized, upholstered chairs. A door on the left wall opened up to reveal a generous bathroom and the door opposite that revealed a bedroom.

Scarcely daring to breathe the Doctor pushed open the bedroom door and took a step inside the chamber. A canopied bed hugged the far corner; a small but serviceable wardrobe stood sentinel opposite. A small dressing table and chair occupied the right wall. Slightly off from the center a small settee faced a fireplace that crackled merrily on the left.

Whoever these people were, they hadn't spared any expense for their captives.

The Doctor padded softly to the bed. He pulled back the curtains and focused on the form resting within. "Bella?" He whispered, almost afraid to raise his voice for fear that she wasn't real. "Bella, it's me. It's the Doctor."

No response. _Was she drugged?_ The Doctor sat down on the edge of the bed and lightly shook her shoulder. He earned a slight moan from the sleeping woman that he immediately recognized _._ Despite the scent, despite what his eyes were telling him it wasn't until he heard her voice that he knew for certain.

The Doctor had finally found his wife after almost six months of searching.

The Time Lord shifted Bella so that he could see her face. He brushed her hair away from the glands on her neck and licked the spot hoping for a clue as to why she wasn't waking.

Drugs. She had been heavily sedated.

"Bella? Bella, wake up sweetheart, it's me." The Doctor called softly as he began lightly tapping her face to rouse her. He would allow her to sleep later but for now the Time Lord needed to reassure himself that she was okay.

Bella groaned louder. "Come on, sweetheart, let me see those green eyes of yours." The Doctor pattered on, stringing together sensible and nonsensical phrases while he tried to rouse the girl to consciousness. He should probably let her sleep it off but the Doctor wanted, _needed_ to see her and talk to her. He needed to make sure she was real. It had been too silent in his head. He wanted her real and he wanted her back. She could sleep after he counted her fingers, verified her toes, and re-established their bond.

After several minutes of shifting, tapping, and chattering Bella's eyes opened slightly. She drew her hand up to wipe her face as the Doctor kept up his patter. Finally, for the first time in six months, the Time Lord watched Bella sit up, open her eyes, and look at him.

Right before she punched him.


	34. Hell Hath No Fury

"Where's Jack?" Bella screeched as she jumped to her feet on the bed. She swiped the curtains away from her face as she hopped to the floor and stalked towards the startled Time Lord. " _What have you done with Jack!?"_

" _I haven't done anything!"_ The Doctor shouted back. He really should have let her sleep it off, he realized too late as he began to back away from her. _I think she broke my nose,_ the Time Lord thought as he rubbed the affected appendage.

"You must've thought you were being funny, pretending like you didn't know me. What were you trying to do, shake me up so I'd drop my guard and you could kidnap me? You get me Jack, and you go get him RIGHT NOW!"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! 'Excuse me, Miss? You dropped this.'" Bella mimicked. "You think I'm stupid, that I wouldn't recognize you? It might've been three years but _I never forgot!_ How DARE you try to play me for an idiot! You go get me Jack _**RIGHT NOW!**_ So help me, if you've laid one hand on that man I will cut off your guy-parts and cook 'em for breakfast! I'll show you the wrong side of what an old-fashioned lynching feels like, so help me I will, if you don't bring me Jack Harkness and you don't get him NOW!"

 _Wait, what?_ The Time Lord placed the settee between them as he tried to figure out what in Rassilon's name Bella was ranting about. His wife was enraged, convinced that she had seen him...wait. Where had she seen him?

"Bella, I need you to calm down," the Time Lord implored the furious woman as she continued to stalk him around the room. "I need to know exactly where you saw me last. It's important. You said I didn't know you? When was this?"

"Right before you kidnapped me, you idiot! Where's Jack, is he okay? Oh my God you didn't leave him there with the volcano coming, please tell me you didn't!" Bella's face was a look of horror as she stopped chasing the Time Lord around the room.

"I didn't leave Jack anywhere! I just woke you up when I found – wait, did you say volcano?"

"Yes, I said volcano. What else do you expect in Pompeii, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man? Where's Jack, is he okay?"

 _Pompeii. A fallen scarf. Dream after dream of Bella_ _in the crowd. Volcano Day. Donna screaming._

"Oh, I'm an idiot!" The Doctor exclaimed as he grabbed his head to support the new connections. "I knew where to find you all along! I'm too thick, too many memories but my subconscious tried to tell me using dreams! Arrrgh!"

Now he just had to explain it to his wife. "Bella, you saw me, you really saw me _but_ that was me from before I ever met you. I didn't recognize you because I literally couldn't. We didn't meet officially until several months after that event. I only now just realized that it was you."

Bella frowned. "What do you mean, that was you before you met me? Is this some kind of sick joke?"

"No, it's time travel. Come on, surely Jack's explained the basics to you. Sometimes you encounter people outside their regular time stream. When you do, they won't recognize you because they've not met you yet. It's always best to avoid that but sometimes it's inevitable. You met me in Pompeii right before I even realized that I was IN Pompeii. I was so disturbed at finding myself there that the encounter completely slipped my mind."

"Okay," Bella said slowly after several moments of thought. "I'll give you that. But where's Jack?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know? He was there when you _kidnapped_ me." Bella's eyes flashed as the storm started brewing again.

"Bella, I swear to you, I didn't kidnap you. I haven't been to Pompeii since before I met you properly. I'm a prisoner here as well. I was tracking down an advert listing you for sale at auction but it was a trap. They captured me and left me here in this cell with you. I have no idea what happened to Jack. I haven't seen him."

The Doctor took a moment to examine his upset wife. "Wait, how long has it been since you've seen me besides Pompeii? How long since Dowdo IX?"

"About three years."

 _Three years._ The Doctor gulped. Well, that explained certain, ehem, _changes_ in her anatomy. Bella had not only lost the chubbiness of youth, her hips and breasts had become more prominent than they had been in the past.

She looked like a woman grown.

Bella jerked him out of his reverie. "So you haven't seen Jack?"

"No."

Bella turned away from him, searching for the exit. "Hey assholes!" She shouted as she banged on the door, "You bring me Jack Harkness and you bring him _right now!_ "

Enough. The Doctor had had enough. The first time his wife sees him in three years and she's more worried about...

The Time Lord surged forward, flipped Bella around, and pinned her against the door. Bella shrieked as the Doctor placed his fingers upon her temples and forced himself into her mind.

The little noises she made were like music to his ears as the Doctor completely overwhelmed her defenses and latched onto her bonding node. He could barely tell where he ended and she began as he fed his essence into her and re-forged their connection.

The Doctor wiped a tear from her eye with his thumb as he drew back from her. "It's alright, it's over, I'm done." Bella looked up at him with unfocused eyes. She staggered when she tried to move away from him but he caught her before she fell. "Easy." he soothed. "You're going to be a bit out of it while the link settles into place. Let me help, eh?"

He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into the bedchamber.


	35. Tussles

Joanna Markus watched the Time Lord slam the female against the door from the observation center nearby. "Oh look, Tom, they're tussling," she commented to a nearby worker.

Tom came over and started watching the video feed. "Doesn't look like a simple tussle to me; seems like he might be hurting her. How much older is that male than the female? He seems a bit rough. Look at that tear on her cheek."

Joanna consulted her pad. "Not exactly sure; if he's the one we think he is then he's about a thousand years old."

"A thousand? That's like putting a bull in with a baby! That female has barely reached sexual maturity; she still has an intact hymen. Can't we just inseminate her? Breeding her natural seems a bit cruel, especially to such a rough one. We could stick them together after she drops her first; she won't have a hymen to pop after that."

"Don't be silly, Tom, she'll be fine," Joanna assured the man. "Look-" she pointed at the Doctor carrying Bella to the bedroom, "see how well he's tending her. You worry about them as if they were human. There is simply no comparison, so stop being such a softie."

"I do _not_ consider them human, Joanna; I consider the bottom line." Tom retorted. "The happier and healthier we can keep that little female the more money we both make and you know it. That little thing's whelps are going to make us a lot of money but we won't make a penny if that male causes her to miscarry."

Joanna watched the screen for a bit. "You have a point. Keep a close eye on them; if you think he's too rough after she takes we'll separate them. That way we not only have a natural conception, we ensure a safe pregnancy. Does that sound reasonable?"

"Fair enough, Ms. Markus. Oh, by the way, that Time Agent sent you a message. Something about being promised a bonus?"

"Oh yes! Send the Captain an extra twenty thousand. He was quite prompt in retrieving the female and I want to keep him available for future acquisitions."

"Yes, Ms. Markus."

~~~###~~~

REVIEW ANSWER:

 **Shewolf: I am not exactly sure what I'm going to do yet. I hope to at least finish Ten's tenure in this story if that helps but the way this story keeps changing I never know where it will head tomorrow, much less the far future :)**

 **Thanks to everyone for their reviews! I read every single one and send you all out hugs and Jelly babies every single time I get a new one. Take care!**


	36. Better Off

Jack Harkness looked around, searching the patrons of the bar he had just entered for a very particular person.

He had barely escaped Pompeii; he had been so drugged by the dart that had been shot in his back that he had hardly been able to activate the emergency transport on his Chula Warship. When he finally made it to safety he passed out again in his bunk.

Jack woke up later to discover that the dart used to sedate him was still embedded in his back; it was a standard multi-species sedative used heavily by the Time Agency.

Jack could work with that.

A tall, well-built figure stood up at the end of the bar, shot glass in hand, and motioned for Jack's attention. Jack walked up, smiled, and let loose with a right hook that connected with the man's jaw.

The stranger drew back and connected with a punch of his own while people screamed and scattered. Jack tossed the man, the man tossed Jack, blood flowed from both and in time neither could tell whose blood was whose in the bar that had quickly emptied of all but the two battling men.

When it seemed as if the pair were about to level the building around them they simultaneously pulled weapons on each other. After a moment of frozen acknowledgement they kissed.

"What are you doing in this area Jack?" The man asked as he poured Harkness a drink.

Jack tossed the shot down his throat. "Looking for you, Captain Hart. Who have you been working for lately?"

Captain John Hart swallowed a chaser. "Oh, you know me, I work for anyone with enough cash to pay. Why – are you looking for a job?"

"Actually I'm looking for something I lost back in Pompeii. Tiny little exotic got snatched right from under my nose."

'Funny place to put an exotic. She must have been really small."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Sorry, too much time in the 20th Century. You know what I mean, however. She's mine, and she was taken. I want her back."

John flinched. "The right exotics are worth a fortune. Any luck tracking her down?"

Jack gave a cold smile. "Actually, yes." He tossed something toward the other man. "You lost this."

Captain Hart caught the item mid-air and held it up to the light, revealing a sedative dart. "Oh Jack, you shouldn't have. Look, it's empty and everything."

Jack's fist caught the Time Agent on the bridge of his nose and the pair started fighting again. This time they didn't stop until Jack had the other man pinned to the floor with a gun pointed at his head.

"Where is she?" Jack demanded.

"Okay, okay! Geez, I didn't know you were so attached to the little thing! I was hired to capture her for breeding under the Endangered Species Act. She's probably having the time of her life right now with the male they found for her."

Jack released the other man. "Wait, they found a male? A male of her species?"

John chuckled. "From what I understand that's why they hired me. They had captured a male and wanted the female retrieved as soon as possible. Gave me a bonus for working fast – which, of course, simply meant that I used my Vortex Manipulator to return five minutes after I left. Spent two months actually tracking you."

"So they just wanted her retrieved for breeding purposes? They found her mate?"

"That's what they told me. I managed to get a glimpse of the male; brown scruffy hair, gorgeous brown eyes; completely your type if want to try for a threesome."

"He's not around six foot and lanky wearing a suit with those old Converse sneakers, is he?"

John's eyebrows raised. "Yes, same man. You know him?"

Jack shook his head. "Know of him. He's Bella's mate."

John pursed his lips and poured them both a drink. "Ooh, the way you say that I would think that you were jealous. Don't tell me; she's one of those poor little telepaths who can't have fun outside of a Bond." After watching Jack's reaction for a moment he patted the con-man on the back. "Oh, she _is_ one of those. Oh Jack, you know not to fall for that type. They are physically incapable of returning your affection, you know that."

The Time Agent handed Jack another drink. "Tell you what; I'll split the fifteen thousand I made for the job with you on the condition that you let me get you so drunk you forget all about that little girl. We both know she's better off where she's at and _you_ , my friend, need a distraction. Wanna go have some fun?"

Jack knocked back the drink in a single gulp. "I thought you'd never ask."

~~~###~~~

REVIEW ANSWERS:

 **Time-Twilight:** I didn't expect Ten to bond with Bella in the first place and here he's already done it twice so I have NO idea what he's planning to do with that girl. I'm not sure if I will even cover Season 5 in this story but I will keep your suggestions in mind should I reach Season 6 either in this story or a sequel.

 **Falling Right-Side Up:** I think Jack is doing a bit better than I expected... Remember, he IS a con-man at this point in time.


	37. Pandas

The first thing Bella noticed when she woke up was the fact that the Doctor was nibbling on her neck. One arm was wrapped around her waist from beneath and the other was cupping her shoulder while he worked his way towards it with his mouth. The next thing that Bella noticed was that the Doctor's ministrations were sending little electrical pulses all the way from her neck down to her lower stomach, pulses that were making her insides all twitchy. It felt really good but extremely different at the same time.

She moaned and shifted her head to allow the Time Lord better access to her neck. That felt _good_ and Bella didn't want it to stop. Randomly her mind flitted to the times that Jack had nibbled on her neck. It had just tickled to the point where it quickly became annoying. It hadn't felt anything like what the Doctor was doing at all. For a moment Bella wondered at the difference until his fingertips curled _just so_ where they caressed her abdomen and all thoughts of anything other than the Time Lord skittered away.

"That feels good," Bella confessed in a sleepy whisper as she stretched a bit to ease the tension growing in her stomach.

"It does?" The Time Lord whispered back. He ran his tongue up her neck to caress the shell of her ear. "How about that?"

Bella gasped as a shudder went through her body. The Doctor chuckled softly. "I'll take that as a 'yes' then," he said. He moved his lips to where her arm joined her shoulder and then slowly began inching down the back of it.

Bella turned to gaze at the Time Lord with sleepy eyes before she buried her face in his chest. She could feel him laugh gently as he wrapped his arms more securely around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"Doctor?" Bella asked a few minutes later. "Why can't I hear the Tardis? She's usually singing."

Bella felt the Doctor kiss the top of her head, "We're not in the Tardis, Sweetheart."

"Huh?" Bella sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she looked around their room. "Why not? Where are we?"

The Doctor sat up and wrapped his arms back around her. "What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?" he asked her gently.

Bella looked up at him and blinked. "Pompeii."

"You don't remember anything between Pompeii and waking up in this room?"

Bella shook her head.

The Time Lord rested his chin on the top of her head as he sighed. "We're being held under a protectorate by the Endangered Species Act. We're not in any danger, we just...we don't have any freedom at the moment. It's designed to protect members of critically endangered species from being sold off to Collectors and potentially separated, or even from being killed by unscrupulous poachers. Long story short it's designed to keep us safe, whether we want it to or not."

For a few moments Bella allowed herself to be held as her sleepy mind worked through the information she had been given. "So we're being treated like pandas?" she asked hesitantly.

"That's a surprisingly accurate description," the Doctor admitted. "They've given us a nice habitat, a good supply of food from what I can smell, and 24-hour protection from the ilk of the Universe."

Bella pulled herself away from the Time Lord and frowned. "Are you telling me that we're in a zoo?"

"Not exactly. We aren't going to have tourists tossing us crackers, if that's what you're worried about."

Bella's breathing quickened as she climbed out of bed and headed directly to the main room. She turned in a circle as she took everything in. The Doctor headed straight over to the table laden with breakfast foods. "Oh, look, nibbles. I love little nibbles. They've got tiny little breakfast rolls and everything. Come look, Bella."

Bella ignored him and walked over to study the apparent exit. "There's no doorknob. Why isn't there a doorknob?"

"Because if there were a doorknob, we might be tempted to try and escape." The Doctor stated bluntly as he came up beside her. He tried to hand her a slice of bacon. "Eat this, you like bacon."

Bella jumped as she heard a hiss. She whirled towards the noise to discover that the door to the bedroom had been shut. She went over to the door and tried to open it but the door refused to budge.

"It's alright," the Doctor soothed. "It's just the cleaning crew. They've locked us out so that we won't see them. It's standard procedure since so many species haven't been exposed to cleaning droids before. They'll unlock the room when they've finished, just like they did with the bedroom when they tidied up and left us breakfast."

Eyes wide, Bella stepped back and tugged at her hair with her hands. She looked around blindly as she tried to pull enough oxygen into her lungs. Why couldn't she breathe? She had to get out she couldn't breathe! She heard the Doctor shout something in the distance before everything suddenly went dark.


	38. Facing Phobia

"You've got claustrophobia."

The Doctor's voice barely rose above a whisper as he lounged beside Bella, stroking her hair as his wife regained consciousness. "Well, I say claustrophobia, but it's probably more accurate to call it Cleithrophobia since you only seem to react when you feel you've been trapped. It's happened twice now, well, a bit more than that if you count the stories I uncovered while tracking you down so this isn't just a fluke. Bella, what happened to make you so afraid?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Bella put her legs over the edge of the bed and sat up.

The Time Lord spoke now low and long. "Bella, what happened? Something from when you were a child, eh? Something scary, something you didn't understand. You were placed in a box, tied up by a bully maybe?" He turned her to face him. "I can help. I promise I can help sweetheart, but you've got to let me in."

Bella refused to meet his gaze. "It's nothing, I'm fine."

She tried to pull away from the Time Lord but he refused to budge. "Is that why your pulse is beginning to race? Why, right now, even though you _know_ that you are safe, is that why you're having trouble breathing? I'm not even holding you that tight Bella, yet I can feel your fear through our link and you think you can tell me that you're fine?"

"Let me go!"

Bella tried to force herself free but the Doctor wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her close to his chest. "No." he said firmly. "Not until you talk to me. This is why you left the Tardis that night on Dowdo IX, isn't it? You felt trapped so you ran. This is why you've been fighting the bond, resisting your own biology; you're not being stubborn, you're just afraid. Talk to me. Tell me what happened. Tell me what's wrong."

" _I don't know!"_ Bella buried her face in the Doctor's chest and wailed. "Please let me go, I'm scared!"

The Doctor brushed her temples with his fingertips, sending cooling emotions to his companion while he held her tight and began to slowly rock her back and forth. "I know you are. And I know you don't understand right now but that is why I'm doing this. You have to learn that you are safe, and you're not going to realize that until you face your fear."

The Time Lord blinked some moisture from his eyes as his wife continued to struggle. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you Bella, not now or ever. You're all I've got, you and that Tardis so some way, somehow, I've got to make this work. I've got to make you understand that I would destroy the Universe before I let you come to harm. You're safe, sweetheart, I promise. I just need you to talk to me, to explain to me what you're feeling, what you're thinking so that we can get to the root of this, okay? So just relax, know that you're safe now. You're wrapped in my arms where nothing can harm you. Tell me what frightens you so I can chase it away."

Bella slowly stopped fighting and lay limp in his arms. The Doctor continued to whisper to her, occasionally lapsing into what she believed to be his native tongue as he continued to rock her. "You can let me go now." she said after a time.

"No. Not 'till you talk to me. Tell me what happened, what made you so scared. What happened when you were young to make you this way?"

Bella was defeated. "Nothing. I just...I just dream sometimes of being locked in a metal box. I'm banging and screaming and saying I'll be good and the air stinks and I just can't breathe."

"And you flash back to that dream sometimes, when you feel trapped?"

Bella nodded wearily.

The Time Lord kissed her softly on the top of her head. "Thank you."


	39. Success

**A/N: Hope you are enjoying the last day of 2016. Frankly I am glad to see it gone. It has been a rough year.**

 **Spent the last few days moping since Princess Leia and her mom died. Did you know that Debbie Reynolds was the voice of Charlotte the spider in "Charlotte's Web?" I loved that cartoon! *sobs***

 **A friend tagged me with this story on Facebook. Apparently August Derleth started out writing fanfiction when Author Conan Doyle didn't write enough Sherlock Holmes stories to satisfy him. The first stories were about the cases Watson alluded to but never explained. He eventually changed the names of his characters from Sherlock to "Solar Pons" and started selling the stories to a mystery magazine. He went on to have a lifelong career as a mystery writer!**

 **The next time that anyone says that fanfiction is stupid I am going to use that example to tell them to STFU. This is how I'm practicing with the goal of writing my first novel.**

 **Happy New Year, folks!**

 **~~~###~~~**

"Twenty cred. says that old male pops her tonight," Joeseh Mills announced from his seat at the Surveillance station.

"Tonight! Are you stupid? She hasn't let him near her since his last attempt two days ago." Jamez scoffed as he came up behind the other. "Did you _see_ her? She practically knocked his head off!"

Joeseh leaned forward to closely watch the screen. "I think everybody's watched the replay but look – he's trying again."

Everyone gathered around the screen as they watched the old Time Lord slowly move to sit on the floor behind the young female. He had removed the top blanket from their bed and wrapped it around his shoulders prior to joining her in front of the fireplace.

"Oh, that's clever," one of the workers chimed in from the back of the small crowd. "He's going to offer to share body heat. Joeseh, mind turning down the temperature in there a bit? Might make her more amenable if she's chilled."

"Great idea!" Jamez exclaimed, reaching for the climate controls. "Fifteen degrees sound right?"

"Sounds good," Joeseh replied, never taking his eyes off the screen. The group watched anxiously, waiting. They listened to the sounds of them talking for several moments and then laughed as the female shivered. The old male wrapped himself around her, covering her not only with the blanket but himself as he placed his head atop hers.

"Told you old males are best to pair with the young ones." Joeseh said softly as he watched the tableau on the screen. "They're patient and know how to get around resistance."

"Well, he didn't do so well the other day!" Jamez countered. "We thought he was going to pop her with his early morning wakeups, too, but that didn't work out now did it?"

"I think he just startled her," Joeseh argued. "From the camera angle it looked like he tried to stimulate her vaginally and rushed it. The way she jumped up you could tell she wasn't expecting it. She _is_ rather young - probably didn't understand what he was doing."

"Did you hear that squeal, though?" Sammi asked. "I wish we could get the translators online so that we could understand what she was saying. Didn't know the thing could move so fast!"

"Shhh! He's doing it!" The group watched the old Time Lord begin stimulating her neck glands with his mouth. The female accepted his ministrations, tilting her head to give him better access as the pair continued to converse softly in the alien tongue. The female drew back to look at the male behind her. Her mouth was slightly open and her chest heaving.

"I'm calling in Ms. Markus" Joeseh announced as he reached for the communicator button. "She wanted to be notified if we thought a successful breeding might take place. She likes to watch the initial ones."

"Pervy witch," Sammi whispered to Jamez. "If she had her own male she wouldn't be so interested in watching them score I bet."

"Shh!"

As one, the group huddled closer to the set of screens displaying the exotic pair from various angles. The male appeared to challenge her, exposing his neck in an obvious invitation. Hesitantly, the female leaned forward and tasted him.

"That's definitely progress," Joanna Markus observed as she managed to secure a viewing position among the gathered crowd. "I've never seen her stimulate his neck glands before."

"It's working!" Jamez crowed. The female was definitely responding; she quickly straddled the male's lap as the blanket fell to the floor. "Should I turn the temperature up a notch? We turned it down a bit to make her more amenable to his approach."

"How much did you turn it down?" Joanna asked.

"Fifteen degrees."

"Hmm. Don't want to risk them getting sick. Raise it five degrees."

"Yes, Ma'am."

The Time Lord pulled away from the female and removed his shirt. Before she could react he tugged her close and resumed his ministrations. The group watched as he used his hands and mouth to caress her. Suddenly, he grabbed the hem of her gown and snatched it over her head.

The group let out a cheer as the female squeaked in obvious surprise. She covered her breasts with her hands and tried to pull away but the male wrapped his arms around her waist and refused to allow retreat. For several moments the Time Lord held the struggling female, whispering in her ear as he waited for her to calm. The group held its breath as they watched him rekindle her.

"Success!" Joeseh yelled, jumping up from his chair as everyone started hugging and clapping each other's backs in celebration. The Time Lord had managed to lay the girl upon the floor and settle between her legs.

"Note the time of initial breeding in the record." Joanna Markus instructed after the group giddily watched the pair finish. "Use the video logs to note it exactly. We don't know how long gestation takes so we need to be exact."

"She might not take this first time," Joeseh pointed out to the woman.

"Oh, I don't think that's going to matter much." Joanna replied. "I suspect he'll take her frequently for the next few days at least. They usually do. Oh, what did you do with Tomas? That was stupid, leaving the vent cap so loose that the female could pry it off. She could have hurt herself crawling around in that vent. If the male hadn't managed to pull her out we would have been forced to dismantle the entire ventilation system to retrieve her."

"I had Timmz put him in with the Arboc pair. They like to play with their food so I thought it fitting."

"Excellent. Make sure you instruct the cleaning droids to leave any bones behind. The female can use the calcium."

"Yes, ma'am."


	40. Afterglow

**Still own nothing (except Bella, that is). It would be nice, though. ;)**

 **~~~###~~~**

The Doctor's eyes softly caressed his wife as she slumbered in his arms. The urge to enjoy her again was rising but he knew that she needed her rest. Breeding frenzies were hard even on full-Gallifreyans but she didn't have the same stamina.

Even so it felt good to finally let loose with his instinctive urge to couple with his wife. He had been holding himself at bay for far too long and the temptation of having her near too great, especially after he had realized that Jack hadn't soiled his prize. Her blushes at his questioning and the sound slaps she had given him had been ample proof of that.

The Doctor had been astounded at her resistance. The biological imperative to mate normally ran quite high after a claiming bond yet she had resisted strongly until her final surrender. _Must be the human in her,_ he thought with a smile. It was over now though; to the Doctor's delight she had been the one to initiate their last round of lovemaking.

He ran his tongue over a filling in the back of his mouth. The slight vibration told him that the Tardis was ready and awaiting his summons. He made a mental note to destroy any records of their captivity when he returned to shut the facility down for good. No sentient being deserved to be caged and treated like breeding stock, regardless of the reasoning.

The Time Lord wasn't in any hurry though. He wanted to give his wife plenty of time to adjust. The last thing he wanted was for her to consider him her jailer again and flee. While he knew that he no longer had to worry about their bond breaking he also understood that the human drive for free will ran strong in his young mate; it would probably continue to do so until after she regenerated. While native Gallifreyan females were taught from birth to accept the authority of her mate, Bella had been raised under a different set of rules. The Doctor was forced to compensate so he had decided to cheat.

The old Time Lord wanted to laugh at his good fortune. Since the death of his wife centuries before he had given up hope that he would ever have another. The humans he had contented himself with over the years had been as unsatisfying as water to a starving man. While he had loved them all he had craved the mental connection that only his own kind could provide. No one on Gallifrey would have ever considered giving their daughter to a rogue such as he.

Fortunately, their current situation had allowed Bella to see him not as her captor but as a fellow prisoner. This blessing had allowed him to connect with her on a level that she had previously denied. Soon she would lose her fixation on Harkness and embrace him fully as her spouse. He would make sure of that.

His nostrils flared as they caught a new scent. The Time Lord inhaled deeply and smiled. Bella's changing hormones indicated that her reproductive system was finally coming online as a result of their couplings. She would be fertile soon.

The Doctor brushed the hair away from her face as he leaned in to kiss her awake. He would let her sleep later.


	41. Ceremonies

**A/N: Many thanks go out to Emptyvoices for inspiring this chapter with her wonderful story "Lost in Reality." She has written several brilliant Doctor Who stories and I highly recommend them all.**

 **Much thanks to my daughter Dreaming-of-evil for proofreading this.**

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"How does it feel for you?" Bella asked the Doctor as the pair dozed sometime later.

"How does what feel for me?" The Time Lord asked, brushing a stray strand of hair away from her face.

"This bond. In your head. How does it feel?"

"It feels like I'm finally complete" he murmured, leaning over to softly kiss her on the temple. "How does it feel for you?"

Bella smiled sleepily. "It feels like I'm standing in a ray of sunshine."

He chuckled for a moment, pulling her closer for a brief hug. "I'm glad."

When Bella awoke again she realized that they were in the exact same position as when she had fallen asleep; laying on their sides facing each other, their limbs intertwined so that she couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. The Time Lord was watching her through half-lidded eyes, making her suspect that he had dozed as well. "Do you really consider us married?" she asked quietly, needing an answer yet not wanting to disturb the peaceful silence between them.

"Of course," the man responded without hesitation. "Don't you?"

Bella could feel his eyes as he waited for her response. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "It's...I feel like I'm trapped in a whirlwind and I don't know which way is up anymore."

The Doctor pulled Bella even closer, tucking her head beneath his chin. "I forget sometimes that you were raised in a different culture," he apologized with a sigh. "We could do it on Earth, if you like. Get married, I mean. If that would make you feel better we could do it when we leave."

Bella drew back. "You would do that?"

The Time Lord kissed her on the nose. "Just say the word and it's done."

Suddenly the Doctor sat up and hopped off the bed. "Of course!" Bella watched in confusion as he grabbed the sheet and ripped a strip off of one end. "I should have thought of it before!"

Bella sat up and wrapped the blanket around her. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you a ceremony!" The Time Lord plopped down beside her, took one end of the cloth and wrapped it around Bella's right hand as he explained. "I married you according to the ancient laws of claiming on Gallifrey. However, in modern times we developed a ceremony much like your marriage ceremonies on Earth. Now, _normally_ a bride's father is supposed to consent and give her away but in this case I think you can stand for yourself." He wrapped the other end of the cloth around his hand. "All you have to say is 'I consent and gladly agree.'"

Bella's eyes widened as the Doctor waited expectantly. "I consent and gladly agree," she said quietly.

The Time Lord took a deep breath. "I am the Doctor. I am of the House of Lungbarrow. I am a Time Lord, and as is my honor, I lay claim to this woman as mine." He waited a beat. "Say your part again to finish," he instructed.

Bella swallowed. "I consent and gladly agree."

The Doctor tugged on the cloth, pulling her close and wrapping her once again in his arms. "Do you think we'll ever get out of here?" Bella asked as sleep beckoned again.

The Time Lord lightly kissed the top of her head. "You let me worry about that, eh? I promise I won't let anything happen to you. Now get some sleep."

And she did.


	42. Changes

**A/N: Sending hugs and Jelly babies to everyone who has reviewed. Have a nice evening!**

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The pair were curled up in the matching pair of wingback chairs, reading in quiet camaraderie when the Doctor suddenly felt Bella's mood spiral. He looked up in alarm and saw that tears were streaming down her face as she stared unseeingly at the volume in her hands.

"Bella? What's wrong?" The Doctor moved to crouch beside his suddenly disturbed wife.

"It's all my fault," Bella choked, wiping her face with her palm.

"What's your fault, Bella?" The Time Lord asked.

She began to sob. "I killed him. Jack's dead and it's all my fault."

The Doctor rubbed Bella's thigh with the back of his hand. "What makes you think Jack's dead?" Bella hadn't mentioned the Time Agent since they had consummated their union. While the Time Lord was delighted that Bella had been treated well in Jack's care, the fact that Harkness had absconded with his wife still rankled. He had hoped that Bella had put the man out of her mind.

He could barely understand her over her sobbing. "I killed him! It's my fault that he's dead!"

Sighing, the Doctor scooped Bella up out of the chair and sat down with her on his lap. He wrapped his arms around his wife as he tried to determine what had triggered this sudden upset. He had seen her cry many times since they had met but this was new. She had went from calm to crying jag faster than the Doctor could blink.

"He was so sweet, so easy to love and now he's dead because of me!"

The Time Lord frowned. Was she falling ill or was this something else? He sniffed her neck and relaxed as he realized what was going on.

Bella was finally pregnant. The Doctor had began to worry that his hybrid bride was sterile as the weeks had passed without result. He chuckled as he rubbed her back soothingly. "Jack's fine, sweetheart," he reassured her.

"No he's not," Bella managed to choke out. "He would have showed up by now if he was still alive. He's dead and it's all my fault!"

The Doctor raised her chin so he could look her in the eyes. "Bella, I promise you that Jack is fine."

Bella shook her head. "No he's not!" She pulled away from his hand and nestled her face into her chest as she started crying even harder.

The Time Lord winced. He really didn't want to tell her that he knew Harkness personally but couldn't think of anything else to try. "Bella, look at me."

She shook her head. "Look at me," he repeated firmly until she finally obeyed. "I know Jack. Personally. I met him some time after the two of you separated. It was a long time ago for me, but if he was dead my memories would have changed. I promise you that Jack is fine."

"You know Jack?"

"Yes," the Time Lord confessed.

"Why didn't you say something?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I haven't seen him for a long time but I promise you the man is fine."

"Can we see him? When we get out of here?"

The Doctor winced. The last thing he wanted was to see his wife with the Time Agent. _Absolutely not_ was what he wanted to say. "We'll go when we can," is what he found himself saying instead.

"Thank you!" Bella threw her arms around his neck as her emotions took a u-turn for the better. The Doctor cringed. _What had he just gotten himself into?_

~#~

Two days later Bella's morning sickness started. The Time Lord began to wonder if he should have gotten them out of there sooner as he handed his wife a cloth to wipe her mouth when she finished throwing up for the third time that day. She couldn't keep anything down and he wanted nothing more than to stick her in the Tardis infirmary and run a complete scan.

"I"m sorry. I must have eaten something that disagreed with me," Bella said as he helped her back into bed.

"It's not something you ate," the Doctor said as he rubbed his thumb across her temple.

"Then what is it then?" Bella asked. "Something made me sick; it had to be that new dish they sent in here this morning. That's the only thing that's changed."

 _Didn't they teach sex education in her dimension?_ the Doctor wondered as he scratched his head in frustration. He had thought she would be able to figure it out on her own. "You're pregnant."

Bella sat up and frowned. "Pregnant? I can't be pregnant."

The Time Lord's eyebrows tried to leap off forehead. "What do you mean you can't be pregnant? You are."

Bella swallowed and looked away. "I can't have kids," she announced softly.

"What?"

Bella kept her eyes focused firmly on her hands resting in her lap. "The doctors told me a long time ago. I was going to tell you but the subject never came up."

The Doctor's mouth flew open. _Human. She had been raised as human. Blimey._ "Bella, you know that you're not human. We've been over this."

She nodded. "Yeah, I saw the DNA report. I still can't have kids, though. I've never had a period."

 _Oh._ "Bella, Gallifreyan females don't bleed during their menstrual cycles. Their reproductive systems don't even come online until after they're fully bonded. Even with that, their bodies reabsorb the uterine lining instead of discharging it the way humans do."

Bella's eyes flew to his. "What?"

The Doctor shrugged.

"You are _kidding_ me." Bella's breathing quickened as she stared at him in open-mouthed shock. "They told me I couldn't have kids. Not ever."

"They were wrong."

One small hand flew to her stomach. "Oh. My. God. I'm pregnant?"

The Doctor nodded with a smile.

"Oh my God what are we going to do? I'm sorry, I didn't know. I didn't even think it was possible!"

The Doctor laughed. "We're going to have a baby, of course! What, you didn't think I would be mad, did you?"

"I...I...I don't know what to think. I don't know what to do. I mean, we're trapped! What if they try to take it away? What if they try to kill it?"

The Time Lord pulled Bella into his arms. "Nothing's going to happen to the baby. We're going to get out of here, I promise."

Bella pulled away. "But how? We're trapped! You wouldn't even let me crawl through the vent to even try to get out of here. What are we gonna do?"

The Doctor crawled beneath the covers and tugged on his wife's arm until she lay down beside him. "You let me worry about that, okay? You just worry about getting some rest. We'll deal with this in the morning," he said as he curled himself around her.

~#~

The next morning the Doctor encountered empty space as he sleepily reached out to pull his wife close. He opened his eyes. Bella wasn't in the bed. _Had she went to the bathroom?_ He reached out with his mind. Bella was still asleep. _What?_

He quickly got up and padded into the living area. Empty.

"Bella?"

Silence.

He ran through the open bathroom door in search of his wife. It was empty too.


	43. Caged

Something was wrong.

Bella could feel it. Something was wrong and the Doctor was upset. She struggled to wake up. Why was she so groggy? She could feel the Doctor screaming through their bond.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked as she struggled to open her eyes.

Silence.

"Doctor?" Bella managed to pry open her eyes. She surged upright with a scream. _"Doctor?!"_

She found herself on a tiny cot in a narrow cell; a combination sink and commode was the only other item in the room besides the cot and herself. _Where was the Doctor?_

Bella jumped up and raced to the door. "Doctor!" she screamed as she pounded. She felt him twitch through their link as he realized she was awake; he felt even more upset than he had when she had first awoke. _What were they doing to him? Was he hurt?_

Bella cursed the fact that she couldn't reach out and talk to him to find out what was going on as she raged. " _Doctor!"_ She screamed and she yelled, calling out every vile curse she could think of as she beat against that door.

It didn't budge.

Bella backed up several steps and charged. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire when it slammed into the unyielding surface. She grabbed it and crumpled to the floor in pain.

She had to get out! Bella forced herself to recover, forced herself to get up. Something was wrong. Something was wrong and the Doctor was screaming. She had to get out now!

Bella panted, holding her injured shoulder as she forced herself to look around the bleak cell. Metal walls and a metal floor connected to a metal ceiling. Two strips of light on the ceiling provided illumination, bordering a vent.

Bella backed against the door, braced one of her feet against it, and pushed off, running full tilt towards the other side of the room. Right before she connected with the wall she used her feet to try to climb it, hoping her momentum would allow her to go up. She managed two steps, pushing away from the wall as she leaped, reaching out to snag the vent.

She missed and her world went black.


	44. Shit Creek

The Doctor prayed that Bella was drugged as he paced the living area. She wouldn't do well if she awoke; he was terrified of what would happen when she did. The way his wife panicked every time she felt trapped combined with the rampaging hormones of pregnancy and being separated from him - the end result would not be pretty.

For the first time since finding himself with Bella he switched to Basic. "Helloooo!" the Doctor shouted to the camera by the door. "I know you can hear me. You've got this habitat completely wired. Where is my wife? Have you taken her for an exam? I need to be with her when she wakes so she doesn't panic and miscarry. You don't want that to happen now do you? Your goal here is to produce _children_! You've placed the rarest one you could ever imagine in danger. We need to talk. _Now_."

Several minutes passed. The Doctor was beginning to wonder if they were going to respond at all when the door finally opened to reveal Joanna Markus and several armed guards.

"You should feel privileged, Time Lord. I usually don't make house calls," the woman said as she took in the seething man.

"Don't be facetious," the Doctor growled as he took a step towards the woman. _"Where. Is. My. Wife?"_

"Relax; your mate is perfectly fine. We simply moved her because you have another job to do."

"What?"

Joanna walked past him and sat down in a chair. She crossed her skirted legs and swung one stilettoed foot like a pendulum. "Your kind are incredibly rare; you are the only purebred Time Lord in existence. Even your mate is a hybrid. Since there is no possible way we can breed _pure_ Time Lords we have decided to pursue a rather, shall we say, nontraditional route to achieve our goals."

"No." The Doctor stood tall and revealed the Oncoming Storm. "Whatever you're planning it won't work. You give me Bella back right now and I will forget that this happened."

Joanna looked up from examining her manicure. "And if I don't?"

"Then I will stop you. This is your only warning."

Joanna Markus laughed. "Such big words. You may have been powerful out in the wild but in here you are just the livestock."

"Very well then," The Doctor flicked his tongue over the filling he had embedded in his back tooth to summon the Tardis. He would retrieve his wife and end this farce before the woman realized what had happened.

Nothing. Not a single vibration.

"Looking for this?" Joanna held up a tiny device between her thumb and forefinger.

The Doctor paled. She held his Tardis link.

"That was quite clever, disguising this as a filling. We completely missed it until our scans picked up that signal you sent. Thank you for that, by the way. We removed this at the same time we relocated your mate. Ready to listen now?"

The Time Lord swallowed. He had been counting on that device for a quick exit, placing it in his tooth shortly after he discovered that his wife was being hunted as an exotic. "What do you want me to do?"

"Nothing you won't enjoy, I assure you. Simply impregnate the females I send in here. I would just harvest your sperm and inseminate them directly but we prefer the natural method of conception here. If you're good I'll even allow you to stay with your mate in between jobs."

" _What?"_

"Do we have a deal Time Lord?"

The Doctor's mind reeled. Bella was awake; she had picked up on his emotions and was starting to panic. He tried to push it away, to force himself to exude a calm he did not feel but failed. A surge of his fear slipped through his mental walls and he promptly felt a burst of pain from Bella.

" _Are you insane?"_ The Doctor yelled. "Where's Bella, where have you taken her? Isn't anyone keeping her safe? She's _panicking_ , you idiot! She's already hurt herself, I can feel it! Take me to her _now!_ "

"Oh, don't be so dramatic," Markus sighed. "Your mate is perfectly fine. I had her placed in a small dark room to keep her calm and quiet. There's absolutely nothing in there that can harm her. Do what I want and you can see for yourself. Do we have a deal?"

The Doctor charged the woman in a blind rage. The guards grabbed him by the arms and pulled him back. "You idiot! Bella's _cleithrophobic;_ you've stuck her in the worst possible place you could think of! She's panicking, I can _feel_ her! She's going to miscarry if you don't _take me to her now!_ "

"Do. We. Have. A. Deal?"

The Doctor could barely think; the pain assaulting him from the link to his wife mixed with horror as he realized that his overconfidence had placed Bella and their child in danger. He could lose them both if he didn't do something quick.

"We have a deal," the Time Lord ground out. He needed space to think.

Joanna smiled again. "There, that's better. Now you're learning your place. I'll send the first female in here shortly. Do her quickly and you can see your mate by evening meal. Now be a good little stud and service her quickly. I'll be watching."

The guards released the Doctor's arms and exited behind their boss. The Doctor slumped; Bella was now unconscious.

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 **Reviews are love!**

 **The good ones inspire me to write even faster :)**


	45. Hillbilly

**Time-Twilight:** I'm afraid the Doctor grew a bit overconfident and now he's suffering from the consequences. He's not been thinking clearly since he first caught Bella's scent while he was ordered to shower and change.

First mistake: he forgot to secrete his sonic in his clothes when he changed.

Second mistake: he assumed that they would leave Bella with him full-time except for occasional medical exams. I'm guessing that would be the normal practice since zoos do the same thing here on Earth.

Third mistake: he sent that test signal to the Tardis, alerting his captors to the device.

Fourth mistake: he stayed there _waay_ too long while fostering the bond with his wife. He honestly didn't think they were in any danger of being hurt or separated.

Fifth mistake: he didn't have a backup plan for his backup plan. Normally the Doctor would have used the sonic to break them out of there. The device in his filling had been his backup plan. Since he didn't believe that they were in any danger he hadn't been concerned when he forgot the sonic. He thought he could just summon the Tardis whenever he was ready to leave, essentially treating their captivity as a honeymoon/vacation from his traditional planet-saving.

Now he's having to deal with his instinctive panic at being unwillingly separated from his mate as well as her out-of control pregnancy emotions since she's not only suffering from the same panic, she's cleithrophobic as well. He has been caught completely off-guard and now he's paying the price.

The Doctor is many things but he is far from perfect; he might actually lose this round due to overconfidence.

AND NOW we're going back to Bella.

 **~~~###~~~**

Bella awoke with a groan. Every part of her body hurt and her shoulder felt as if it was on fire. She sat up, rubbing her head with her left hand.

She rotated her shoulder experimentally and winced. It hurt like hell but at least she had range of movement.

Bella could work with that.

The pregnant Gallifreyan worked to get her bearings and figure out what to do next. The ceiling was too high up for her to reach the vent. Her last stunt had rendered her unconscious when she had crashed back to the floor. She placed her hand on her belly, wishing she could feel the baby within. She wasn't cramping so she assumed it was okay.

Bella raked her brain trying to figure out how to escape. The Doctor's agitated buzzing made it almost impossible to think. If she could get to that vent she knew she could crawl out; it was large enough for her to fit in if barely. But how could she get up there?

A scene from one of her favorite movies flashed through Bella's mind. In _Terminator 2_ Sarah Connor had upended her bunk in the mental hospital so that she could do push-ups. If Bella could manage the same she could use it to climb up and reach the vent!

Bella crawled over to the bed and pulled herself up. She forced herself to use both arms as she grabbed the foot of the bed and gave it a yank.

"Shit!" she exclaimed as fire blossomed from her wounded shoulder. The bed scraped loudly against the floor as she managed to budge it. Inch by inch she tugged; she felt like she was going to be sick from the pain. Tears streamed down her face as she dragged the bed to the middle of the cell. She plopped down for a while to let the agony ease.

She reached out with her mind while she rested; the Doctor was upset but apparently unhurt. She forced herself to calm a bit, focusing on breathing deep and slow as she massaged her shoulder. After a while she took a deep breath, pulled herself back up, grabbed the bottom of the bed, and pulled.

Bella screamed. She almost dropped the end of the bed on her head when her shoulder started shaking. She allowed the bottom of the bed to rest on her uninjured shoulder while she worked to handle the agony. Nothing was more important than escape; her shoulder would cooperate whether it wanted to or not. She pushed and tugged and cried and rested until she managed to make the heavy metal bed frame stand up on one end.

After resting for a while Bella began the agonizing climb to the top of her makeshift ladder. She thought she was going to fall off when the frame began to wobble but she finally made it to the top. She panted, examining the vent cover while she recovered from her exertions.

To her surprise this vent wasn't screwed tight like the one she had managed to pry off while trapped with the Doctor; a simple catch was all that held it closed. She quickly opened it and climbed inside.

Bella grimaced as she forced herself to start crawling. She had to remain quiet; she didn't want to risk capture. She swiped a cobweb away from her face. _Hold on, Doctor, I'm coming,_ she thought as she made her escape.

~#~

Several minutes later she looked down to examine the vent she had encountered. It opened into some type of break room; vending machines lined one wall. A table was directly beneath her. A single guard sat alone eating his meal.

Bella listened. From the noises she could pick up no one seemed to be nearby.

 _Time to open a can of whoop-ass_ the angry Gallifreyan thought with a grin.

Bella's shoulder protested as she levered her butt over the grating; her weight should be sufficient to trip the weak catch holding it closed. She sat down. As she expected the catch broke and she fell, landing with her rear on the table right in front of the startled guard. The edge of the vent caught the man in the face; he fell back in the chair as blood spurted from the cuts.

She dived off the edge of the table, launching herself at the guard. She wrapped her wounded arm around his throat as she placed herself behind him, snagging her wrist with her other arm for leverage as she squeezed tight. He thrashed for a moment as he felt his air and blood supply completely cut off but quickly stilled. Bella was so enraged she held on for several moments after. She wanted these bastards dead.

After a minute or so she released him and checked his pulse. _One down_ she thought with malicious satisfaction when she failed to find a pulse. She quickly searched his pockets, finding what she recognized as a card key. Jack had showed her how to work those during one of their first scams. She also found what looked to be a modern-day switchblade while he had some sort of nightstick/stun gun device strapped to the belt on his waist. No guns, but Bella was satisfied just the same. She wasn't a true Hillbilly if she couldn't work with what she had.

She stripped off the guard's uniform and put it on, pegging the pant legs and rolling up the sleeves. She skipped the boots; they were far too big for her to walk in. Finally satisfied, she tiptoed to the door and listened as she rubbed her aching shoulder.

Silence.

Bella opened it and tiptoed away.


	46. Surprise

The Doctor's eyes scanned the room as he considered his assets. _The vent!_ His eyes flew to the cover in the center of their living space. He had awoken that morning to discover Bella atop a wobbly tower crafted from the table and chairs; she had used a spoon to unscrew the vent cover and was in the process of removing it when he walked in. He was larger than his wife but surely he could fit though the opening.

He quickly recreated his wife's little tower. Climbing up, he saw with dismay that the original screws had been replaced with small bolts. Undeterred, he used the spoon he had grabbed from the morning's breakfast offerings and used the handle to start prying at the slats. The metal wasn't very flimsy but there was enough give to give him hope. All he had to do was make a hole large enough for his hands then he could grab the slats and pry them off one by one.

He stilled for a moment in surprise. Bella was still in pain but no longer afraid. He felt her fury through the link and pushed himself to work faster. An angry Bella was an unpredictable Bella; after experiencing her rage when she thought he had endangered Jack the Time Lord wondered what she would do if she managed to get her hands on one of the guards. She too small to do much damage but he worried that they might hurt her or the baby while trying to restrain her.

An alarm started blaring throughout the building. The Doctor pulled the warped spoon handle out of the opening and hastily bent it straight again. He needed to get out of there fast. He growled; the slats were too thick to allow for much progress. It took him ten more minutes of work but he finally managed to create an opening wide enough to stick his fingers through; he dropped the spoon, reached in, and started tugging. He ignored the pain as the sharp metal cut into his hands and blood seeped down his arms.

"What the hell are you doing? Come on!" The Doctor jerked around, almost falling from his perch. Bella stood in the doorway, dressed in a guard uniform so large that it would have been comical if it hadn't been liberally splattered with blood.

"Bella!" The Doctor climbed down, grabbed his wife and captured her mouth in a fierce kiss. He could feel her happy triumph as he drew back and gave her a quick once-over. A large bruise was forming on her right temple and cuts covered her face and hands. Her right shoulder was apparently injured; he had felt her pain through the link as she hugged him. Nothing that he couldn't fix. She didn't seem to be favoring her abdomen so hopefully the baby was safe as well.

The Doctor grabbed her left hand in his. "Run!"

He dragged his wife down the corridors, searching for the office where he hoped to locate Markus. He needed to recover the homing device so that he could summon the Tardis. He pulled Bella into a storage closet when he heard the guards coming closer. Taking advantage of the respite he pulled his wife into his arms. He looked around the room as he hugged her and froze. Laying on the ground in the back of the small space was the body of a guard. His skull sported an indentation that looked like it had been caused by a stick-shaped object similar to the bloody one hanging from his wife's waist. Blood seeped out of his wounds, making a slowly growing pool around his head.

He grabbed his wife by the upper arms and pushed her away so that he could look into her eyes. _"What have you done?"_

"Kicked their asses straight to Hell," she growled.

The Doctor grimaced; he would have to deal with her later. Checking to ensure that the corridor was clear he grabbed Bella's hand and continued his mission.


	47. Home

The Doctor looked at Bella as she tugged him to a stop. "This way!" she ordered as she pulled him towards a door. She used her stolen card key to open the lock and entered. They were in yet another corridor; Bella led him along at a run.

"Where are we going?" the Doctor demanded. "Markus' office is the other way!"

"Home!"

"What?"

She shot him an annoyed glance as she ran. "I can always find my way home. The Tardis is this way."

The Doctor reached out and, sure enough, he felt the faint humming in the back of his mind. The pair ran through the corridors, dodging guards the whole way. The Doctor felt a wave of relief as his time ship came into view. She was sitting in the corner of another large storage area.

"Bella, I need you to grab the spare key. It's hidden behind the P. Climb up," he instructed, weaving this fingers together to create a step.

Bella obeyed and within moments the Time Lord opened the door and pulled her inside. "We did it!" Bella cried, throwing her arms around his neck in jubilation.

The Doctor wrapped his arms around her, lifting her from the ground and giving her a quick twirl before he sobered. _He needed to end this._

Bella sensed the change in mood. "What's wrong?" She asked as he put her down.

His expression was solemn as he cupped her face in his hands. "I'm sorry but I have to do this alone. I'll not put you in any more danger."

"What?" Bella's eyes drifted shut as the Doctor forced her to sleep.


	48. The Next Chapter

Bella awoke to find herself surrounded by the Doctor's scent. She tried to blink the sleep away as the Tardis hummed a gentle greeting. "Hey, Old Girl," she mumbled as she sat up and looked around.

 _This must be the Doctor's room_ Bella thought. She was in a large, comfortable bed housed in a room that fitted her husband's personality perfectly.

"It's about time you woke up, sleepyhead," the Doctor entered carrying a tray. "I thought you might be hungry," he said as he placed it on her lap.

 _Food!_ Bella ate like a starving woman. She felt like she hadn't eaten for days. As she handled the utensils she paused as she realized something.

"My shoulder doesn't hurt," she said quizzically. "I didn't think I'd be able to move it for days once the adrenaline wore off."

The Doctor chuckled. "I fixed it. And before you ask, the baby's fine."

Bella placed her hand upon her belly. "I still can't believe I'm gonna have a baby. How am I going to know what to do? I always stayed away from babies after the doctors told me I couldn't have one."

"I think we'll manage," the Doctor replied as he snagged a piece of toast off her plate.

"Hey! I was gonna eat that!"

"Tough. I did all the work so I'm stealing a bite."

"But I'm still hungry!" Bella protested.

"If you're still hungry after finishing all that's left on your tray, I'll fix you some more. Now eat."

Bella did as she was told. It felt strange how easily she had adapted to being with the Doctor but it felt right just the same. Even so, how did she end up here? The last thing she remembered was...

She slapped the Doctor's arm, "You knocked me out!"

"Ouch! Yes, I did and no, I'm not going to apologize. You were hurt and so upset that you killed several people back there. _Killed,_ Bella. You didn't just hurt them or knock them out, you killed them stone dead. That was _completely_ uncalled for."

"You're pissed off at me! I didn't know what was happening to you! I didn't know you were safe until I managed to track you down!"

"That is no excuse. _Don't_ do it again. If we are ever separated, you sit there and you wait for me. You do not try to escape, you do not panic and hurt yourself, and above all you do _not_ kill anyone ever again. Do I make myself clear?"

Bella found herself unable to hold the Doctor's glare. "Okay," she agreed glumly as she looked away.

The Doctor threw an arm over the shoulders of his young wife, pulled her close, and kissed her on the head. "Finish your meal. We've got a big day today."

Bella looked up at the Time Lord quizzically. "Why? What are we doing?"

"Oh I thought we would put the Tardis on random and see where we end up. Don't know about you but I'm sick of being locked inside."

"Me too!"


	49. Reunion

Captain Jack Harkness had just pulled up to Torchwood when he heard a familiar sound. He slammed the door on his SUV and ran toward it. He found the Tardis parked in it's customary spot near the Millennium Centre. The Doctor was standing in front of the closed doors.

Jack slowed to a stop several feet away. "Doctor."

"Jack."

"It's been a while."

The Time Lord nodded. "Yes, it has."

"Is this just a quick refuel or is there something I should be worried about?"

"Someone wants to talk to you."

Jack frowned as the Doctor reached behind him and rapped on the Tardis door. A petite woman with long black hair stepped out. She seemed familiar but Jack couldn't place her. She obviously knew him from her reaction, though.

"Jack?" the woman asked hesitantly.

Jack's eyes widened in shock as recognition dawned. "Bella?"

The woman squealed and ran into Jack's arms. He scooped her up and gave her a twirl. "Billie!"

The Time Lord looked on impassively as Jack put Bella down and noticed her belly. "Well! Looks like your wish came true! How far along are you?"

"Five months," the Doctor chimed in. "It's been less than a year since she last saw you."

Bella gave Harkness a shove. "What happened to you? I thought that you were dead!"

Jack nodded towards the Time Lord. "I heard you found him."

"That's not an excuse! I was scared to death!"

"Bella," The Doctor intervened. "It's been a long time for him, just let it go."

"Hmph!" Bella snorted.

"Hey, but you're happy right?" Jack asked. "He gives you any trouble you come find me. I'll take care of him."

"Jack!"

The Doctor gave a burst of laughter. "Understood."

"The Doctor said that we could maybe get some food? I'm starving!"

"You're always starving," the Time Lord retorted. "Mind sharing a meal with us, Captain?"

"And have the opportunity to dine with my favorite Hillbilly? Wouldn't miss it for the world. There's a new restaurant just up the way here," Jack pointed to indicate the direction. "I hear the food's really good. Does that work for you guys?"

"Sounds perfect," Bella said as she wrapped her arm around Jack's elbow.

"Bella, why don't you go on ahead and find us a spot," the Doctor said. "I'd like to have a word with Jack."

"Well, hurry up or I'm starting without you!" Bella detached herself from the former Time Agent and quickly headed in the direction Jack indicated.

Jack grinned as he watched her walk away. "Look at that, she's waddling. That's so cute!"

The two men followed behind at a much slower pace. "I wanted to thank you for taking care of her," the Doctor said. "I'm still a bit annoyed that you took her off the planet, but I'm glad it was you and not someone else. That's how you recognized me on Utopia, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Jack replied. "I didn't put all of the pieces together till then. When I first met you I thought it was just coincidence that you shared the same name."

The Doctor nodded. "It's for the best. Might have damaged the time lines otherwise."

"True." He nodded towards Bella's retreating form. "She seems to have adapted well," Jack commented.

"Well, it helped that you managed to prove to her that she wasn't human."

"Yeah. She fought me tooth and nail on that one. Her grandfather had her pretty convinced."

"Can't blame her, though. It was her grandfather. What else was she was supposed to believe? She'd been raised to believe a lie."

"Yeah."

"Hey guys, you coming?" Bella yelled in the distance. She had turned around to wait for them.

"Bella look out!" The Doctor screamed.

The sound of screeching tires. A thud as a minivan clipped Bella on the driver's side. Her body flew into the air like a rag doll. Another car hit her as she came down.

Jack and the Doctor rushed to Bella's side. She looked up at them with glazed eyes. "Does this mean we can't go eat?" she asked in confusion.

The Doctor scooped Bella into his arms and ran for the Tardis, Jack at his heels. He placed her on the floor in the Console room and turned her face to make her look at him. "Bella, you need to regenerate. Come on, sweetheart, you can do it."

Jack looked on, waiting for the glow to start. "Come on Billie, show us some sparks," he begged, patting her on one twisted leg.

"Huh?" Bella looked from one man to the other. Her eyes began to close.

"Regenerate!" The Doctor screamed, giving her a shake.

"Do you think that she can?" Jack asked desperately. "She's only three-quarters."

"Yes!" the Doctor snapped at the other man. "I gave her treatments so that...No no no no NO!"

"What? What is it? What's wrong?" Jack demanded.

"The treatments! She ran off before I could finish them! She was pregnant before I got her back to the Tardis so I couldn't finish them. Bella!"

Tears ran down the Doctor's face as he rocked his dying wife in his arms. "Bella, please! You need to regenerate! Don't do this to me!"

"Oh, God." Jack choked as Bella faded away.

 **~~~###~~~**

 **Sorry guys, but Bella's story ended here. I thought they would have a long life together but after reading the Time Winds I saw that it wasn't the case :'(**

 **If it helps my daughter is furious that Bella and her baby died. We just had an argument over posting this chapter. :| :,(**


	50. Author's note

To those who are upset about Bella's fate: I'm sorry but I have to write the scenes as I see them. I can't cheat and change them. I cried too, I don't like the thought of her being dead. She's been in my head for a long time.

I promise, if I ever find out that she somehow managed to survive I will start another story explaining what happened. I'm not sure when that will be (if ever) but I promise that I will.


	51. Part 2 is started

Okay, guys, this is last time I'm bugging you.

I managed to figure out what happened somewhat. The continuation is called "Bella" and you can find it here:

s/12310569/1/Bella

I have no idea how often I will be able to update. I've been letting my day job book slack while I figure out what happened to Bella, so I've got to get back to work. Still, I'm glad to have finally figured out what happened. At least a little bit.

Enjoy!

~Annie


End file.
